Pecan Pie is a sweet custard pie made primarily of corn syrup and pecan nuts. It is popularly served at holiday meals and is also considered a specialty of Southern U.S. cuisine. Most pecan pie recipes include salt and vanilla as flavorings^. Other ingredients such as chocolate and bourbon whiskey are popular additions to the recipe. Pecan pie is often served with whipped cream.

New Orleans Pecan Pie

Tradition holds that the French invented pecan pie soon after settling in New Orleans, after being introduced to the nut by Native Americans. It is sometimes referred to as “New Orleans pecan pie,” adding an aura of French cuisine to a home-cooked comfort food. Attempts to trace the dish’s origin, however, have not found any recipes dated earlier than 1925, and well-known cookbooks such as Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking did not include it before 1940.

The makers of Karo syrup popularized the dish and many of its’ recipes. Karo Syrup’s own website contends that the dish was a 1930s “discovery” of a “new use for corn syrup” by a corporate sales executive’s wife.