10 Iconic American Things With Foreign Roots
The United States’ status as a nation of immigrants is reflected in the fact that a lot of the things considered iconically American originated in, or at least heavily borrowed from, other parts of the world. Here are ten things commonly associated with America that aren’t exactly 100% American.
Apple Pie
It may be a staple in Thanksgiving and 4th of July meals, but apple pie isn’t really as American as apple pie.
Pies in general can be traced as far back as Ancient Rome and Greece, where they were stuffed with meat or seafood. Pies stuffed with apples were first mentioned by British poet Robert Greene in 1589, when he wrote “Thy breath is like the steeme of apple pies” in his poem Menaphon. This means that apple pies were around almost 200 years before the United States existed as a country at the very least.
Pie recipes were brought to the colonies by the piligrims and started really gaining popularity in the 1800s.
Source: History of Pie (time.com)
