23 The History of Strawberries & the Strawberry Pie

Written for Spice Station Silver Lake by Amanda Csolak

The Strawberry is considered one of the top favorite summertime fruits in America. Most everyone loves freshly picked strawberries. Strawberries go great in so many different recipes. From ice cream to cakes to smoothies and tarts, you can’t go wrong with the strawberry. 

In this article, we will discuss this ever-popular fruit and the infamous strawberry pie, a sweet treat perfect for those summertime picnics. 

First, let’s talk about the history behind this sweet red fruit.

How The Strawberry Got Its Name

We don’t really know who is responsible for naming the strawberry. So the reason behind the name is really up for debate. The word strawberry most likely stems from the old English word “streawberige” due to the fact that the plant produces runners, which can appear similar to pieces of straw. However, others argue that the name comes from the practice of using straw in mulching strawberries or from finding wild strawberries growing among dried straw or hay. 

Some scoff at those notions defining how this fruit got its name and insist the name came from how the strawberries used to be skewered onto a piece of straw for sale in open-air markets of the time. 

The History of the Strawberry

A member of the rose family, the strawberry is native to North America, and while it has been around for thousands of years, the plant was so abundant there was no need for cultivation in America. The first American colonists began shipping strawberry plants to Europe as early as the 1600s, and by the 19th century, the strawberry began to gain popularity with the creation of a luxurious dessert merging strawberries with cream. 

Cultivation of the fruit later made its way back to America, with New York becoming the strawberry hub once the railroads began connecting major cities and towns, thus spreading the production of this delicious fruit to other states. These days more than 75 percent of the North American strawberry crop grows in California. 

The Strawberry Is Not Really a Berry

You read that right! The strawberry, the beloved summer fruit, isn’t a berry which is crazy to consider since the word ‘berry’ literally makes up half the name. The person behind the name of this sweet, red fruit isn’t exactly known, but whoever is responsible for naming strawberries clearly wasn’t too concerned with being scientifically accurate. 

To be labeled as a true berry, the fruit must meet some particular criteria. Berries are defined as fruit derived from one flower ovary, and they contain at least two seeds. Since the strawberry does not develop from the flower’s ovary, it falls into the scientific category of an accessory fruit. 

Unlike their close cousins the cherry, the strawberry’s fruit is derived from the flesh of the plant’s flower. Raspberries, apples, watermelon, and pineapple are other examples of accessory fruits. 

My Love For Strawberries

I’ve always loved strawberries, from spending time with my family picking them straight off the plants at the local farmer’s market stand to laughing and enjoying a bowl of sweet red strawberries sitting on my Grandpa’s old porch swing. There are so many memories revolving around this amazing fruit. And while watermelon remains my top favorite red fruit, strawberries are second. 

Read More: Watermelon: How Mom’s Favorite Fruit Became My Own

As an adult, I still enjoy sharing a bowl of fresh strawberries with my husband or whipping up a particularly tasty dessert, such as the fantastic Strawberry Pie, which I’ve included a recipe for below so you can make it too. 

All About Strawberry Pie

The original Strawberry Pie has a fascinating backstory. This dessert is almost as famous as the people who used to enjoy eating it. A master seller with flamboyance and flair, Max Hess Jr., who owned the now-closed Hess Bros Department Store of Allentown, PA., was considered to be the P.T. Barnum in the world of department stores. He made shopping fun and held spectacular fashion shows with a different celebrity every week. Celebrities like Zsa Zsa Gabor, Rock Hudson, and Johnny Carson all made appearances on his shows. Even if you couldn’t afford the fashion, you could enjoy the show and the pie available at his restaurant, The Patio. 

The strawberry pie kept people returning to his store, leading to Max spending a small fortune flying in strawberries from New Zealand so that it could be available year-round. 

Many home-spun varieties of this infamous pie have been floating around since the last Hess’s Department store closed in the 1990s. All of which contain questionable substitutions such as using red food dye or even Jell-O. Our version of this classic pie comes the closest to the original that people like Liberace couldn’t get enough of. We added our own littlest of tweaks to improve the recipe with more modern ingredients; by including pectin in with the cornstarch thickener helps create a glaze that is neither bouncy like Jell-O or gummy. 

If you want to create the most authentic Strawberry Pie you can add copious amounts of whipped cream on top of the glazed strawberries, just as Hess did originally, or you follow our lead by simply garnishing with a dollop in the center to show off those beautiful strawberries more. Offering a bowl of extra whipped cream at the table. 

 

Fresh Strawberry Pie Recipe

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 4 hours

Total Time: 6 hours

Yields: 8 servings

What You Need: A Flour Sifter, one measuring cup, measuring spoons, a mixing bowl, a small saucepan, two sharp knives, parchment paper, a bag of dry beans or pie weights, a cooling rack, a fine strainer or sieve, and a 9” pie plate.

 

Ingredients: 

For the Pie Crust:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted
• ½ tsp pacific blue sea salt flakes
• 1 ¼ sticks ice-cold butter, cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg, beaten
• 1 to 2 tbsp. whole milk or cream

For the Fresh Strawberry Filling:

• 10 cups whole, fresh berries, stems removed (8 cups will be used whole; 2 cups will be crushed into strawberry juice; save two tiny berries to garnish)
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1 cup water
• 1 cup organic strawberry sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 1/2 tsp pectin

For the Garnish: 

• 1 cup heavy whipping cream
• 1/4 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Make Crust: Sift flour and salt together. Using two knives, or your fingertips, cut in butter until the mixture is like damp sand with a few bits of butter still visible. Sprinkle in only as much milk or cream as you need to get the pastry to hold together when lightly pressed. Gather dough into a ball, place on plastic wrap, and flatten into a disk. Wrap. Refrigerate for one hour.
2. Prep Berries: While the pastry is chilling, wash and stem all but two of the prettiest, smallest strawberries. Set those aside to garnish pie. Toss 8 cups of the remaining stemmed berries in a large bowl with 1 cup confectioners’ sugar. Set aside to marinate for 1 hour.
3. Blind-Bake Crust: Place oven rack in lower third of oven. Preheat oven to 425. Roll out pie crust. Ease into a 9-inch pie pan. Trim excess crust; fold and crimp a decorative top edge. Prick bottom of pie crust. Line crust with parchment paper. Fill with dried beans or pie weights. Place filled pie-crust pan on a cookie sheet and place the oven. Bake for 15 minutes at 425. Reduce heat to 350. Remove foil and pie weights. Continue baking pie crust for an additional 15 minutes at 350 or until crust appears golden and baked through. Remove weights. Cool pie shell on a rack.
4. Make Strawberry Glaze: In a small saucepan over medium heat, heat water with remaining 2 cups strawberries. Continue to heat until water is steaming. Mash the berries with a potato masher to break them up. Continue heating for two minutes. Pour mixture into a fine strainer/sieve and press, allowing juice to run through the sieve into a bowl. Discard the seeds and pulp left in the sieve. Return the strawberry juice to the saucepan. Sift 1 cup cane sugar, cornstarch, and pectin together and whisk into the strawberry juice, constantly whisking over medium heat until juice boils, thickens, and becomes clear. (Juice will darken and appear cloudy at first; continue heating and stirring until it clears.) Remove from heat and set strawberry glaze aside.
5. Assemble Pie: Brush bottom of baked pie shell with 1 or 2 Tbsp of the strawberry glaze. Working in a circular pattern, arrange strawberries, cut stem-side down into the pie shell. Once you have bottom layer full, spread a bit more of the strawberry glaze over the set berries. Continue stacking and fitting berries into the shell, mounding them up slightly higher in the middle of the pie. Spread remaining strawberry glaze over all. Place pie in refrigerator to set for 1 hour.
6. Garnish Pie: While pie cools and sets, make whipped cream garnish. In the bowl of a stand mixer with whisk attachment, whip heavy cream with confectioners’ sugar and vanilla until the cream holds peaks. Place a mound of cream on the cooled pie. Top with two tiny berries. Serve extra cream at table.