Are Derby Pie And Pecan Pie The Same?

A multitude of lawsuits, a handful of ingredients, and a syrup company's marketing campaign are all that separate Kentucky derby pie — derby pie for short — from pecan pie. Really, it's easy to see why people confuse the two. Both boast chunks of crinkly nuts immersed in an ooey gooey center that sits on top of a flaky crust. More traditional-leaning derby pie makers stick to walnuts and chocolate chips as filling. Walnuts and chocolate isn't as pedestrian of a combination as it might sound. No, not at all. As Lou Today put it, the derby pie is "like a warm chocolate chip cookie with walnuts wrapped up in a slice of pie."

As for pecan pie, it's pecans, not walnuts, that make it what it is. However, if you take a quick perusal of Google, you'll see that pie makers have blurred the lines between the two pies even further by putting pecans into their own twists on derby pie. Particularly creative pie makers try to differentiate their versions of the dessert even further from the original recipe by pouring in a bit of bourbon – probably as a nod to the bourbon-based mint julep, the official drink of the Kentucky Derby.

But the thing about calling the pie "derby pie" as opposed to something else, well, that could be a bit problematic. The Kern family, the originators of the pie's recipe in 1954, have trademarked the name, which is why you see a circle-encased "R" after the pie's name on the official website of the family's company, Kern's Kitchen. It's also why, occasionally, the recipe and the name become fodder for lawsuits when commercial outfits try to sell pies by the same name. 

It's now a pie that people officially associate with the Kentucky Derby, though the name wasn't chosen to coincide with the derby in mind, per se. No. It was literally luck of the draw — a name that the Kern family, Walter and Leaudra Kern and their son, George – drew out of a hat. The Kerns first served the pie at the Melrose Inn in Prospect, Kentucky, which is some 15 miles from Louisville, home of the Kentucky Derby. The inn no longer exists, but the pie and the family's new restaurant, Kern's Kitchen, do.

And while the name of the pie might have accidentally aligned itself with the famous horse race, the Kerns — the fourth generation of 'em — and their pie are now partners of the Kentucky Derby Festival. The Kerns' most impressive and largest derby pie came from this affiliation. Measuring 12 feet across, that wee morsel o' pie helped to kick off the re-opening of the Kentucky Derby Museum in 1985.

Pecan pie began appearing in cookbooks in the South as early as the 1880s. Two events ensured the popularity of the recipe: the proliferation of pecans and the introduction of Karo corn syrup in 1902 (and the marketing campaign that followed). Pecans are native plants in the United States. However, until an enslaved agronomist called Antoine figured out how to make pecans a more viable crop in 1847, they were a rarity in the United States.

As for Karo syrup, it was a product of the industrialization that marked the food industry in the early part of the 20th century. Before then, recipes for pecan pie called for a cream base, though one of the earliest mentions of the pie appeared in Louisiana cookbook circa 1900 called "A Book of Famous Old New Orleans Recipes Used in the South for More than 200 Years." That book featured pecan pie made from the usual suspects: "eggs, sugar, 'Louisiana syrup,' pecans, butter, vanilla extract, and pecan halves," (per the University of North Carolina blog).  Louisiana syrup was presumably a precursor to the sweet syrup found in modern iterations of the recipe.

Women's magazines like Harper's Bazaar and Ladies' Home Journal further ensured the proliferation of the pie, as did regional restaurants, which began promoting their own version of pecan pie, which often included Karo syrup. However, associations between pecan pie and Karo syrup weren't officially a thing until the 1930s, when a recipe by the wife of a Karo company exec became the most common version of pecan pie.

When Kentucky Derby season is in full swing, thousands of derby pies race out the doors of Kern's Kitchen. If you're in Louisville, Kentucky, in the early part of May to see the Kentucky Derby, you can get a slice of the famous pie and a mint julep then. And it'd probably be worth the trip to Kentucky to get it. However, for the savvy online food shopper, it's entirely unnecessary to drive to the Derby to get a slice of this American-made pie: Kern's Kitchen ships all over the country.

As for pecan pie lovers, Kern's also makes pecan pie. However, ownership of the recipes for the early 20th-century versions of pecan pie belong squarely in the public domain. In light of that, the tastiest and most authentic recipe for the pecan-studded dream pie might just be found in an old cookbook in the attic of an old church in Louisiana. All you need to do is make it.