Today, January 23rd is National Pie Day. Doesn’t a piece of pie sound good? This is a photo of the pie safe in your Museum.
The pie safe was a common household piece of furniture used in the 1700s and 1800s. It predates the invention of the icebox. The pie safe was made of wood with shelves inside. It had two hinged doors on the front. The doors, and the sides of the safe, were ventilated either with tin plates with punched holes or with screen. The holes in the tin were punched to produce a design. The holes allowed heat to escape from the safe when cooling pies while the doors were closed.
A pie safe was also used to store other food. Bread, meat, and other perishables were stored in pie safes, to protect them from insects and critters.
Keeping Pies Safe