The Wikipedia entry for “Chess pie” offers up several possible explanations for the name – the pie is named for a piece of furniture called a pie chest, or for the town of Chester, England. Some theories are just silly. “It’s jes’ pie.” Okay… whatever.
The likely explanation is that “chess pie” evolved from recipes like this recipe for “cheese cakes” and that the “cheese” morphed into “chess,” possibly due to the confusing lack of cheese in the filling.
These are not quite like the “cheese cakes” Elizabeth Ellicott Lea included in her 1845 cookbook. Lea’s cheesecakes are made from curd and combined with pulverized almonds and flavorings. This recipe, on the other hand, contains no actual cheese and very little dairy- but it is easy to see the similarity. The basic formula was very popular in British cookbooks at the time.
Many “cheese cake” recipes contain pulverized almonds. Some recipes, such as the one in Hannah Glasse’s 1786 “The Art of Cookery,” include the peel of the lemon, cooked and blended into the custard. Others present the pie filling as a preserved product that you can keep in a jar for a year before baking into a pie. A second recipe included in Glasse’s book appears to be a direct antecedent to Mrs. Schley’s recipe – a very tasty recipe, I might add.
Part of what remains of Conococheague Manor Manor, the Ringgold estate in Washington County. Maryland Historical Trust