The Great Depression was a time of scarcity when people gathered all they had to put food on the table, especially during holiday potluck dinners. Essential ingredients like butter, meat, and milk, were even difficult to come by, so people had to make due. One particular recipe that was used often was the mock apple pie. Can you believe the secret ingredient has NO apples as a filling? Despite the lack of apples used to make this decadent pastry, it was a smashing success for many families during The Great Depression. Today, mock apple pie is still a budget-friendly recipe that makes for a delicious dessert. Tap into this dessert's history and a secret ingredient!
What Is The Mock Apple Pie?
Mock apple pie is a dessert made to taste like an apple pie with no apples required! That's because the secret ingredients lie in the filling: crackers! Traditionally, mock apple pie is made with a filling of soda crackers, lemon juice, sugar, a few pats of butter, and cinnamon. Skeptics may squint their eyes, but the truth is that mock apple pie, when made correctly, tastes eerily similar to its authentic counterpart.
Ritz's World-Famous Mock Apple Pie Recipe
Though the mock apple pie was around since the mid-19th century, Nabisco made it famous during The Great Depression. At the time, the company claimed that the pie could be made using 36 of their Ritz Crackers, alongside other baking essentials. Once baked, a delicious pastry was ready to grace dinner tables. Reportedly, there is one recipe as per Yesterdish which calls for:
- 2 cups of water
- 2 cups of sugar
- 2 teaspoons, cream of tartar
- 2 tablespoons, lemon juice
- A grate of lemon zest
- Pat of butter or margarine
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- 1 pie crust, unbaked
- 36 Ritz Crackers
The filling (including the crackers) was first boiled, alongside the lemon juice, water, cream of tartar, zest, and sugar. After cooling, the filling was placed in the pie shell alongside the butter and cinnamon. After baking for 35 minutes at 425 degrees F, the result is a delicious pie, ready to eat!
Many cooks during the Great Depression were dedicated to creating homemade meals for their families, using what they had in stock within their pantry. Hot dogs, flour, potatoes, and onions were popular staples. Even though these ingredients were used daily, people still used their ingenuity to craft delicious recipes. Thanks to their creativity, iconic recipes like the Poorman's Meal, Mulligan Stew, and dandelion salad were eaten. Mock apple pie graced many family tables, but the origins behind this deliciously deceiving pie date back to even earlier times!
How Was The Mock Apple Pie Invented?
Even though mock apple pie was famous in The Great Depression, it was actually born much earlier. This misconception is understandable, as the cracker company, Nabisco, began printing the recipe for mock apple pie on their Ritz Cracker boxes around the 1930s. During The Great Depression, the company popularized the mock apple pie due to their recipe. Since then, people have incorrectly credited Nabisco for inventing this kooky pie.
The recipe was invented in the 19th century when pioneers wanted to create a dessert in apples, using Boston Crackers or the "common cracker." It was also thought that the pie was invented by Civil War soldiers, who wanted to taste what home felt like. As a result, they would crush crackers (or use breadcrumbs) and mix it with water, sugar, cream of tartar, and other ingredients into a boiling pot. When baked into a pie crust, the result was a mock apple pie.
- Did You Know? Some of the earliest recipes for mock apple pie were released in the 19th century, specifically around 1857 and 1869. The recipes were also called cracker pie or imitation apple pie.
In some instances, according to Yesterdish, the mock apple pie was a cheaper ingredient for pie-making than crafting a dessert using apples. Reportedly, the traditional Ritz mock apple pie recipe calls for 36 crackers. Meanwhile, approximately 3 to 4lbs of apples to construct an apple pie. In hindsight, using only 36 crackers for making pie uses fewer ingredients than using pounds of apples, which comes with the added bonus of coring, chopping, slicing, and cleaning them. Mock apple pie was not only a faster way of making dessert, it also was capable of stretching little food into comforting meals during the Great Depression.
During scarcity, the mock apple pie brought comfort to many families looking for cozy homemade meals. Though popular during the Great Depression and because of Nabisco, 19th-century thrifty pioneers deserve credit for creating the mock apple pie. The pie was a great option for frugal cooks and tight budgets then. However, it's still a perfect budget dessert today and was recently revived due to recent viral social media food trends!
