Pie Trivia
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97 free Pie trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
40 free pie trivia questions with answers. These pie trivia questions start with the crust itself: the inedible medieval 'coffyn', why the word may come from the magpie, what humble pie was really made of, and the pharaoh's tomb that shows early sweet pastries. Then it works through the classics: apple pie's English origins, pumpkin and pecan, Key lime and Boston cream, mince pies and the Puritans, Cornish pasties, Melton Mowbray pork pies, tourtière and stargazy pie. There are questions on state pies, Pi Day and its Exploratorium origins, custard pie fights from Ben Turpin to Bill Gates, banoffee, whoopie and Moon Pies, and the pie floater of Adelaide. Perfect for Pi Day, Thanksgiving or Pie Day quizzes; the easy ones suit families and the harder ones on dates and origins will test bakers. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries before publishing.
30 of 97 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01The first known use of 'pie' (1303) is in the accounts of a priory in which English county?
Yorkshire
Bolton Priory, in Yorkshire's Wharfedale, recorded the word in its 1303 accounts; 'pie' may derive from the magpie, a bird that collects odds and ends like a medieval pie's mixed fillings.
Q 02What was the medieval name for the stiff, often inedible pastry case that held a pie's filling?
A coffyn
A 'coffyn' (coffin) meant a basket or box; the thick case was a container that preserved the filling, while open-topped pies were called 'traps'.
Q 03The expression 'to eat humble pie' comes from a pie made with what?
Chopped animal offal
'Umbles' were the innards; umble pie was food for the lowly.
Q 04Evidence of early sweet pastries appears on the tomb walls of which pharaoh?
Ramesses II
He ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC; the first written Roman pie was rye dough filled with goat's cheese and honey.
Q 05Apple pie recipes were first recorded in the 14th century in which country?
England
The Forme of Cury gives a recipe with apples, figs, raisins and pears in a pastry 'cofyn'.
Q 06'For Mom and apple pie' was supposedly American soldiers' stock answer for why they fought in which war?
World War II
The Washington Post has argued the phrase should really be 'as American as a cobbler'.
Q 07A custard-style pumpkin pie first appeared in the cookbook American Cookery, published when?
1796
Amelia Simmons's American Cookery, the first cookbook written by an American, appeared in 1796 and included two 'pompkin' pudding-in-crust recipes.
Q 08Key lime pie probably derives from a 1931 'Magic Lemon Cream Pie' recipe promoted by which condensed-milk maker?
Borden
Borden promoted the 'Magic Lemon Cream Pie' in a 1931 brochure for its Eagle Brand condensed milk; the acidic juice curdles yolks and milk so the filling sets without baking.
Q 09In 2006, Key lime pie was designated the official state pie of which state?
Florida
Florida statute 15.052 made Key lime pie official in July 2006.
Q 10Which state named pecan pie its official state pie in 2013?
Texas
Texas, whose state tree is the pecan, named pecan pie its official state pie in 2013; the earliest known recipe appeared in Harper's Bazaar in 1886.
Q 11Historically, mince pies were made with what?
Meat
Mince pies were meat pies: neat's tongue, beef, mutton and even tripe were minced with suet, dried fruit and spices, and Puritans attacked them as indulgent Catholic fare.
Q 12According to the PGI rules, a Cornish pasty must be crimped where?
Along the curved side
PGI rules say a Cornish pasty is D-shaped and crimped along the curved side, filled with beef, potato, swede and onion; a top-crimped pasty is the Devon style.
Q 13Which Leicestershire town gives its name to Britain's most famous pork pie?
Melton Mowbray
Melton Mowbray's pork-pie trade began around 1831 as a sideline in Edward Adcock's bakery; the pie uses a hand-raised hot-water crust and jellied stock and holds PGI status.
Q 21Which state made the whoopie pie its official state treat in 2011?
Maine
Maine named the whoopie pie its official state treat in 2011, keeping blueberry pie as state dessert; South Portland baked a 1,062-pound whoopie pie that same year.
Q 22Moon Pies are made in which Tennessee city?
Chattanooga
Chattanooga Bakery has made the Moon Pie since 1917: two graham crackers, marshmallow and a coating, traditionally washed down with an RC Cola.
Q 23Boston cream pie, actually a custard-filled cake, is the official dessert of which state?
Massachusetts
Massachusetts made Boston cream pie its official dessert in 1996; it was reportedly created at Boston's Parker House Hotel in 1856, when cakes and pies were baked in the same pans.
Q 14Purists say a shepherd's pie should contain which meat, as opposed to the beef in a cottage pie?
Lamb or mutton
Shepherd's pie, named for the sheep-herder, uses lamb or mutton; 'cottage pie', first recorded in 1791, originally covered any minced meat and the two names were long interchangeable.
Q 15Pi Day was founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw at which San Francisco institution?
The Exploratorium
Larry Shaw, an Exploratorium physicist, launched Pi Day in 1988 with staff marching around a circular space and eating fruit pies; the US House recognised the day in 2009.
Q 16Which liqueur flavours a grasshopper pie?
Crème de menthe
Grasshopper pie takes its name and green colour from crème de menthe, the mint liqueur in the grasshopper cocktail; the filling is usually folded with marshmallow or cream in a chocolate-cookie crust.
Q 17The pie-in-the-face gag was first seen on film in 1909's Mr. Flip, starring which comedian?
Ben Turpin
Ben Turpin took the first on-screen pie in Essanay's Mr. Flip (1909); Chaplin and Stan Laurel had already done the gag on stage in Fred Karno's troupe.
Q 18How many pies were used in Laurel and Hardy's 1927 pie fight, The Battle of the Century?
3,000
About 3,000 pies, a full day's output of the Los Angeles Pie Company, were thrown in The Battle of the Century; The Great Race (1965) later used 4,000 over five days.
Q 19Which tech billionaire was famously pied in Belgium in 1998?
Bill Gates
Bill Gates took a cream pie from Belgian prankster Noël Godin's crew in Brussels in February 1998; Rupert Murdoch got a foam pie at a 2011 parliamentary hearing in London.
Q 20Banoffee pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in which English county?
East Sussex
The Hungry Monk in Jevington, East Sussex, created banoffee pie in 1971; owner Nigel Mackenzie and chef Ian Dowding adapted a San Francisco coffee-toffee pie, and the name blends banana and toffee.
Q 24Shoofly pie, a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty, is made with which sweetener?
Molasses
Shoofly pie's filling is molasses, brown sugar and crumbs; one theory says the name came from a popular 'Shoofly' brand of molasses rather than from flies drawn to the sweet filling.
Q 25Tourtière, a minced pork pie eaten at Christmas réveillon, comes from which Canadian province?
Quebec
Tourtière is Quebec's Christmas Eve pie; French-Canadian immigrants carried it to New England mill towns in the late 19th century.
Q 26Stargazy pie, with fish heads poking through the crust, comes from which Cornish village?
Mousehole
Stargazy pie belongs to Mousehole, where it is eaten on Tom Bawcock's Eve (23 December) to celebrate the fisherman whose catch reputedly saved the village from starvation.
Q 27The pie floater, a meat pie served in thick pea soup, is a specialty of which Australian city?
Adelaide
Adelaide's pie carts have sold the pie floater since the 1890s; the National Trust declared it a South Australian Heritage Icon in 2003.
Q 28How many blackbirds were baked in the pie in the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence?
Four and twenty
Four and twenty blackbirds, though the first printed verse, from around 1744, had 'naughty boys' in the pie instead.
Q 29The Eskimo Pie ice cream bar was renamed what in 2020?
Edy's Pie
Dreyer's renamed the bar Edy's Pie in 2020; Danish-born Christian Nelson had created it in Onawa, Iowa, in 1920 for a boy torn between ice cream and chocolate.
Q 30Buko pie, made with young coconut and condensed milk, is a specialty of which country?
Philippines
Los Baños in Laguna province is famous for it.