50 free Pie trivia questions with answers — food & drink quiz, new questions added Aug 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 50 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 kept the books; the word may come 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
The word meant a basket or box; open-topped pies were called 'traps', and the case mainly served to preserve the filling.
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
Libby's, the most popular canned pumpkin, uses only the Dickinson variety of Cucurbita moschata.
Q 08Key lime pie probably derives from a 1931 'Magic Lemon Cream Pie' recipe promoted by which condensed-milk maker?
Borden
The acidic juice curdles the yolks and condensed milk so the filling sets without baking.
Q 09In 2006, Key lime pie was designated the official state pie of which state?
Florida
Statute 15.052 made it official in July of that year.
Q 10Which state named pecan pie its official state pie in 2013?
Texas
No recipe older than an 1886 Harper's Bazaar pecan custard pie has been found; Karo syrup's makers popularised the modern version.
Q 11Historically, mince pies were made with what?
Meat
Neat's tongue, beef, mutton and even tripe featured; the Puritans attacked the pie for its indulgent Catholic connotations.
Q 12According to the PGI rules, a Cornish pasty must be crimped where?
Along the curved side
It must be D-shaped and filled with beef, potato, swede and onion; a top-crimped oval is a Devon pasty.
Q 13Which Leicestershire town gives its name to Britain's most famous pork pie?
Melton Mowbray
The trade there began around 1831 as a sideline in Edward Adcock's bakery; the pie uses hot-water crust and jellied stock.
Q 21Which state made the whoopie pie its official state treat in 2011?
Maine
Its official state dessert is blueberry pie; South Portland baked a 1,062-pound whoopie pie that same year.
Q 22Moon Pies are made in which Tennessee city?
Chattanooga
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
It was reportedly created for the opening of the 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
The term 'cottage pie' was first recorded in 1791; the two names have been used interchangeably ever since.
Q 15Pi Day was founded in 1988 by physicist Larry Shaw at which San Francisco institution?
The Exploratorium
Staff marched round a circular space and ate fruit pies; the US House endorsed the day in 2009, and it is also Einstein's birthday.
Q 16Which physicist's birthday falls on Pi Day, March 14, prompting look-alike contests in Princeton?
Albert Einstein
He lived in Princeton for more than twenty years at the Institute for Advanced Study.
Q 17The pie-in-the-face gag was first seen on film in 1909's Mr. Flip, starring which comedian?
Ben Turpin
Chaplin and Stan Laurel had performed the gag on stage for Fred Karno's music-hall troupe.
Q 18How many pies were used in Laurel and Hardy's 1927 pie fight, The Battle of the Century?
3,000
A later $200,000 scene elsewhere used 4,000 pies and took five days to shoot.
Q 19Which tech billionaire was famously pied in Belgium in 1998?
Bill Gates
Rupert Murdoch got the same treatment during a 2011 parliamentary hearing in London.
Q 20Banoffee pie was invented in 1971 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in which English county?
East Sussex
Owner Nigel Mackenzie and chef Ian Dowding adapted a San Francisco coffee-toffee pie; the name blends banana and toffee.
Q 24Which Southern pie's name may be an eggcorn of 'it's jes' pie'?
Chess pie
Another theory derives it from 'cheese-cake pie'; it is the South's most searched-for Thanksgiving pie.
Q 25Shoofly pie, a Pennsylvania Dutch specialty, is made with which sweetener?
Molasses
The name was borrowed from a popular molasses brand, not from flies buzzing round the filling.
Q 26Tourtière, a minced pork pie eaten at Christmas réveillon, comes from which Canadian province?
Quebec
Immigrants carried it to New England mill towns in the late 19th century.
Q 27Stargazy pie, with fish heads poking through the crust, comes from which Cornish village?
Mousehole
It is eaten on Tom Bawcock's Eve, celebrating a heroic catch that saved the village from starvation.
Q 28The pie floater, a meat pie served in thick pea soup, is a specialty of which Australian city?
Adelaide
Sold from pie carts since the 1890s, it was declared a South Australian Heritage Icon in 2003.
Q 29How many blackbirds were baked in the pie in the nursery rhyme Sing a Song of Sixpence?
Four and twenty
The first printed verse, from around 1744, actually had 'naughty boys' in the pie rather than birds.
Q 30The Eskimo Pie ice cream bar was renamed what in 2020?
Edy's Pie
Danish immigrant Christian Nelson dreamed it up in Iowa in 1920 for a boy who could not choose between ice cream and chocolate.