NORTHFIELD — What comes to mind when you think of pi(e)?
Do you immediately start reminiscing of a school lecture about the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter or the flaky crust of a dessert that’s commonly shared among friends and family?
Dickinson Memorial Library celebrated both the endless decimal number and the edible treat Saturday afternoon in honor of Monday’s annual March 14 mathematical holiday commonly referred to as Pi Day.
Pi, of course, is about 3.14159265 … you get the idea. Round it up to four decimals, 3.1416, and you’ll see that this year’s Pi Day, falling on 3/14/16, is special.
Northfield Mount Hermon School math teacher Forest Reid gave a short presentation about the Babylonian discovery of the 18th-century algebraic formula with an opportunity for the 15 guests in attendance to use calculators, rulers and protractors to measure the distance from a circle’s center to its edge.
Robert S. Cox, head of special collections and archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, took the floor minutes after Reid to present topics in his recently published book, “New England Pie: History Under a Crust.” The book is the final piece in a trilogy about native foods to the area.
His presentation started with a simple question.
“What’s the most important part of the pie?” Both “crust” and “filling” were elicited from the audience, causing a disagreement between the two individuals who jokingly bickered back and forth. Cox quickly solved the altercation and said both people were right, as those were the only two answers. However, he said the filling was the most important element in the 17th century, while the crust became the dessert’s staple many years later.
“The crusts back in the day — when Northfield was founded — were not at all like modern day crusts,” he said.
Crusts were inedible because the two main ingredients — flour and water — made the coating too thick to enjoy and functioned less as a savory item and more as a cooking vessel. He said the crusts acted as a natural preservation tool by sealing off the inner contents from insects, allowing the ingredients to mingle for weeks or months before being indulged.
Edible pie crust was introduced in 1796 by Amelia Simmons, who published the first American cookbook in Hartford, Conn., which included a variety of pie crust recipes made with shortening.
“The real innovation was taking this pastry and introducing it to butter or lard,” he said. “That gets you the shortening effect, where the crust becomes soft and flaky.”
His book explores the origin and evolution of popular New England pie fillings such as apple and cranberry and includes photos, interviews with local bakers and classic native pie recipes. It’s available for purchase at:
bit.ly/1pDSAnb.