Just because you make great pie doesn't mean you can dream up a clever name for it.

        Consider 19th-century American cooks who beat eggs, sugar, butter and flavorings together and baked the custard in a crust. The pie would eventually be called “chess.”

        Why chess pie?

        There's the theory the “chess” moniker came about because the pie was meant to resemble cheese pie, even though it didn't contain cheese. Another story is “chess” was derived from Chester, England, because that town was known for similar custardy tarts.

        There's also the tale about the cook, who asked what to put in chess pie, replied: “Anything in your chest,” as in “cabinet.”

        Perhaps the most famous explanation also involves a home cook, who, when asked what kind of pie she had to offer, said:“ 'Jes pie.”

        'Jes became chess.

Maybe just "Good Pie'

        We are sure the naming of this pie had nothing to do with the complex board game. Well, at least pretty sure.

        They could've, should've called it “Simple Pie” or “Plain Pie” or maybe just “Good Pie.” (“Humble Pie” would've been perfect, except that it was already the name for a pastry filled with venison.) For whatever reason, the quizzical chess name stuck.

        It is probably the pie most deserving of a marketing make-over, but chess is still a popular pie passed at family picnics and church suppers, especially in the South and parts of the Midwest. Chess tastes sweet and rich, served warm or cold. It's inexpensive, easy to transport and a snap to make.

        Then why not “Practical Pie” or “Easy Pie?”

        “There's no trick at all to making it,” says LaDine Boling, who bakes pies at the Greyhound Tavern in Fort Mitchell.

        Ms. Boling grew up near Evansville, Ind., across from Henderson, Ky. A neighbor taught her to make chess pie, using sugar, eggs, butter, lemon juice and zest and a tablespoon of cornmeal for thickening the custard.

        Chess pie recipes vary — sometimes flavored with lemon or a dab of vinegar, even apples and chocolate — but the mainstay ingredients are butter, eggs and sugar.

        Cookbook author and Southern cooking expert Marilyn Harris of Clifton believes the first chess pie was created using those staple ingredients because “that's what they had to make filling.”

Plenty sweet

        Though she has roots in Eastern Kentucky, Mary Lou Byrd never heard of chess pie until she moved to Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky as a young woman in the 1940s. A former newspaper editor and writer, Ms. Byrd is a renowned cook, having owned a restaurant in San Diego, Calif., called Mary Lou's Old Kentucky Kitchen.

        Chess pie was never one of her favorites, she admits, perhaps because she once lost a cooking contest (and missed out on a new stove) to a woman in Cincinnati who made a chess pie. She does share her decadent chess pie recipe, though, which calls for a quarter pound of butter, three whole eggs and three yolks, a half cup of half & half and two cups of sugar.

        “It's the sweetest stuff in the world,” says Ms. Byrd, who now lives in Nicholasville, Ky., near Lexington. “That's why I never really liked it.”

        No one would blame you for reducing the sugar a little in most chess pie recipes, says Kristy Schalck, chef-owner of the Tousey House in Burlington. Ms. Schalck, who is dedicated to reviving old Southern and Kentucky dishes at her restaurant in a historic structure, also suggests adding citrus zest and/or ground nuts to the crust for chess pies, as well as garnishing it with whipped cream and fresh fruit.

        It's best not to overdo it, though. The main appeal of chess pie is its simplicity.

        There are chess variations. “Buttermilk pie” and sweet-tart “vinegar pie” are close kin. But those labels seem overly literal, almost vulgar, for dessert.

        So maybe chess isn't such a bad name for a pie after all.
       
       

Recipes

        • Mary Lou Byrd says the meringue topping on this ultra-rich pie is optional. “Most chess pies they pass around in Kentucky don't have meringue,” she says. The vinegar helps counter the sweetness, but you could substitute 1 teaspoon lemon juice.

Mary Lou Byrd's Old Kentucky Chess Pie

        3 whole eggs
3 eggs, separated
        2 cups sugar
        1 stick butter, softened
        1 teaspoon white vinegar
        1/2 cup half & half
        1 unbaked 9-inch pie crust
        MERINGUE (optional)
        1/2 teaspoon cream of tartar
        1 teaspoon cold water
        6 tablespoons sugar

        Mix 3 whole eggs with 3 separated yolks, reserving 3 whites for optional meringue. Stir in sugar and butter and hand beat until fluffy. Add vinegar and half & half and blend. Pour into pie crust.

        Bake at 350 degrees until center is just set, or about 45 minutes. Remove and cool on rack, or top with meringue.

        To make meringue, beat 3 egg whites with cream of tartar and 1 tablespoon cold water until soft peaks form. Gradually add 6 tablespoons sugar and beat until stiff peaks form.

        Carefully begin layering meringue around edges of pie and then fill in center. Return to hot oven and bake a few minutes, until meringue begins to brown.

        • Here's a decadent chess pie, adapted from Bon Appetit by chef Joe Castro of the Camberley Brown Hotel in Louisville.

Chocolate-Pecan Chess Pie

        1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter
       2 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
       1 cup sugar
       2 large eggs
       2 tablespoons bourbon (optional)
       1 teaspoon vanilla extract
        1/4 teaspoon salt
       1 cup chopped pecans, reserving enough pecan halves to decorate top of pie
       1 9-inch prepared pie crust
       Whipped cream for garnish (optional)

        Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Stir butter and chocolate in heavy small saucepan over low heat until melted and smooth. Remove from heat and allow to cool 10 minutes.

        Whisk sugar and eggs in bowl to blend. Whisk in chocolate mixture, then bourbon, vanilla and salt. Stir in chopped pecans. Spoon filling into prepared crust. Place pecan halves on top of filling.

        Place pie on baking sheet in oven. Bake until edges of filling puff and begin to crack and center is just set, about 30 minutes. Transfer pie to rack to cool completely. Garnish with whipped cream, if desired.

— Adapted from The Barrel to the Table: Cooking with Classic Kentucky Bourbons (Camberley Hotel Co.;)

        • Although this recipe originated in Maryland, it was published by Louisville writer Camille Glenn.

Maryland's Chess and Apple Tart

        Enough prepared pastry for a 1 crust, 10-inch pie
       1 cup (2 sticks butter), cut into pieces
       1 1/2 cups sugar
       4 large eggs
       Pinch of salt
        1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
        1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
       3 1/2 cups peeled, cored and chopped tart apples (about 3 apples)

        Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Roll out pastry and fit into a 10-inch pie pan. Trim edges and cover pastry with foil. Weight it down with dry beans. Place pie pan on bottom rack of oven and bake 10 minutes. Remove beans and foil and set partially cooked crust aside to cool. Reduce oven temperature to 325 degrees.

        Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until fluffy. Add eggs, salt, vanilla and nutmeg, and mix well. Fold chopped apples in by hand.

        Pour egg and apple mixture into cooled pie shell. Place pan on lower rack of oven and bake until apples are tender and the blade of knife inserted into custard comes out clean, 45 to 60 minutes. Makes 1 pie.

— The Heritage of Southern Cooking (Workman; $16.95)

        • Perhaps the most classic flavored chess pie, this recipe is from Savannah, Ga.

Lemon Chess Pie

        1 unbaked 9-inch pie shell
       2 cups sugar
       Pinch salt
       1 tablespoon white or yellow cornmeal
       1 tablespoon flour
        1/4 cup ( 1/2 stick) butter, melted
        1/4 cup milk
       Grated zest and juice of 2 lemons
       4 eggs

        Preheat broiler. Run unbaked pie shell under hot broiler for only 1 minute. Remove pie shell to cool. Heat oven to 350 degrees.

        Mix sugar, salt, cornmeal and flour in large bowl. Mix in melted butter and add milk. Add lemon zest and juice, toss in eggs and beat until smooth. Pour into pie shell.

        Place on lower rack of oven and bake about 40 minutes. (Check pie at 30 minutes.) Remove pie when center is barely firm. Makes 6 servings.

— The Lady & Sons Just Desserts (Simon & Schuster; $16.95)

        • This chess-like pie needs no crust.

Olivia's Buttermilk Pie

        1 1/2 cups sugar
       1 cup buttermilk
        1/2 cup Bisquick
        1/3 cup (5 1/3 tablespoons) melted butter
       1 teaspoon vanilla extract
       3 eggs

        Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease 9-inch pie pan.

        Put all ingredients in bowl and blend with hand-held mixer 1 minute. Pour into prepared pan and bake about 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on rack before serving. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

— The Lady & Sons Just Desserts

        • Close kin of chess, vinegar pie tastes better than it sounds. You may even want to increase the vinegar slightly.

Vinegar Pie

        4 eggs
       1 1/2 cups sugar
        1/4 cup melted butter
       1 teaspoon vanilla extract
       1 1/2 tablespoons white, cider or other mild vinegar
       1 prepared 9-inch deep pie shell

        Heat oven to 350 degrees. In a blender, or a large mixing bowl mix the eggs, sugar, butter, vanilla and vinegar. Pour into pie shell. Bake about 50 minutes until center is barely firm. Cool on rack.

       — www.vinegarman.com

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