Pies are defined by their crusts. A filled pie (also single-crust or bottom-crust or tart), has pastry lining the baking dish, and the filling is placed on top of the pastry but left open. A top-crust pie has the filling in the bottom of the dish and is covered with a pastry or other covering before baking. A two-crust pie has the filling completely enclosed in the pastry shell. Shortcrust pastry is a typical kind of pastry used for pie crusts, but many things can be used, including baking powder biscuits, mashed potatoes, and crumbs. Pies can be a variety of sizes, ranging from bite-size to those designed for multiple servings.

The origin of the English word 'pie' is actually rather mysterious. The first known use of the word 'pie' appears in 1303 in the expense accounts of the Bolton Priory in Yorkshire. However, the Oxford English Dictionary is uncertain to its origin and says 'no further related word is known outside English'. A possible origin is that the word 'pie' is connected with a word used in farming to indicate 'a collection of things made into a heap', for example a heap of potatoes covered with earth. One source of the word "pie" may be the magpie, a "bird known for collecting odds and ends in its nest"; the connection could be that Medieval pies also contained many different animal meats, including chickens, crows, pigeons and rabbits. One 1450 recipe for “grete pyes” that might support the "magpie" etymology contained what Charles Perry called "odds and ends", including: "...beef, beef suet, capons, hens, both mallard and teal ducks, rabbits, woodcocks and large birds such as herons and storks, plus beef marrow, hard-cooked egg yolks, dates, raisins and prunes".

Historically, early pies were in the form of flat, round or freeform crusty cakes (represented by modern galettes) consisting of a crust of ground oats, wheat, rye, or barley containing honey inside. These galettes developed into a form of early sweet pastry or desserts, evidence of which can be found on the tomb walls of the Pharaoh Ramesses II, who ruled from 1304 to 1237 BC, located in the Valley of the Kings. Sometime before 2000 BC, a recipe for chicken pie was written on a tablet in Sumer.

The Romans made a plain pastry of flour, oil, and water to cover meats and fowls which were baked, thus keeping in the juices. However, these were more like the practice of clay baking, where the covering was meant to protect the goods baked inside from the direct heat or the fire and the pastry cover was intended to be discarded and not eaten. This was also the common practice in the early modern period and persists for the cooking of fish even today. It should be noted, however that the 1st-century Roman cookbook Apicius (De Re Coquinaria) makes various mentions of recipes which involve a pie case. By 160 BC, Roman statesman Marcus Porcius Cato (234–149 BC), who wrote De Agri Cultura, notes the recipe for the most popular pie/cake called placenta.

In the early Medieval period the earliest pie doughs were probably an inedible, stiff mixture of rye flour and water. The earliest pie recipes refer to coffyns (the word actually used for a basket or box), with straight sealed sides and a top; open-top pies were called traps. Until the mid-16th century this British pie dough known as "coffyn" was used as a baking dish. These pies were meant to be eaten with the hands. The hardened coffyn pastry was not necessarily eaten, its function being to contain the filling for baking, and to extend its shelf-life. Indeed, the thick crust was so sturdy it had to be cracked open to get to the filling.

The first unequivocal reference to pie in a written source is in the 14th century (Oxford English Dictionary sb pie). The eating of mince pies during festive periods is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century, as the returning Crusaders brought pie recipes containing "meats, fruits and spices". Some pies contained cooked rabbits, frogs, crows, and pigeons. In 1390, the English cookbook A Forme of Cury had a recipe for “tartes of flesh”, which included a ground-up mixture of "pork, hard-boiled eggs, and cheese" blended with "spices, saffron, and sugar". The "coffyn" dough for the 14th-century apple pie recipe from the The Forme of Cury was probably a simple mix of water and whatever flour was available in late middle ages. The recipe included spices, apples, raisins pears and figs. The 14th-century French chef Taillevent instructed bakers to "crenelate" pie shells and "reinforce them so that they can support the meat"; one of his pies was high enough that it resembled a model of a castle, an illusion enhanced by miniature banners for the nobles at the event.

Until the start of the 15th century, most pies were expected to contain meat or fish. In the 15th century, more custard and fruit pie recipes began appearing, often with apples and figs and dried fruit like dates and raisins. Fresh fruit did not become widely used until sugar dropped in price during the 16th century. The first cherry pie is recorded in the late 16th century, when Queen Elizabeth I was served cherry pie. Elizabeth was often given gifts of quince or pear pies for New Year.

It was in the 16th century that a puff paste began to be used to make flakier pie crusts. In Gervase Markham's 1615 book The English Huswife, there is a recipe for puff paste where the paste is kneaded, rolled thinly many times while layering with butter. This made a flaky butter pastry to cover meat for pies or for tarts. There is also a pie recipe that calls for "an entire leg of mutton and three pounds of suet..., along with salt, cloves, mace, currants, raisins, prunes, dates, and orange peel", which made a huge pie that could serve a large group. According to Markham, crusts made with fine wheat flour required the addition of eggs to be sturdy enough for raised pies.

In the Georgian era, sweetened pies of meat and dried fruits began to become less popular. In recipe books of the period sweet veal, sweet lamb or sweet chicken pies are given alongside recipes for unsweetened alternatives with the same ingredients made for those who could "no longer stomach the sweetened flesh meats enjoyed by earlier generations". Pumpkin pie was fashionable in England from the 1650s onward, then fell out of favour during the 18th century. Pumpkin was sliced, fried with sweet herbs sweetened with sugar and eggs were added. This was put into a pastry case with currants and apples. Pumpkin pie was introduced to America by early colonists where it became a national dish.

In 1806 Mrs Rundell in her Observations on Savoury Pies in A New System of Domestic Cookery stated that 'There are few articles of cookery more generally liked than relishing pies, if properly made'. Alexis Soyer, a celebrity cook of the 19th century said in his book Shilling Cookery for the People (1860) "From childhood we eat pies - from girlhood to boyhood we eat pies - in fact, pies in England may be considered as one of our best companions du voyage through life. It is we who leave them behind, not they who leave us; for our children and grandchildren will be as fond of pies as we have been; therefore it is needful that we should learn how to make them, and make them well! Believe me, I am not jesting, but if all the spoilt pies made in London on one single Sunday were to be exhibited in a row beside a railway line, it would take above an hour by special train to pass in review these culinary victims".

The alphabetical list of all the pie recipes on this site follows, (limited to 100 recipes per page). There are 683 recipes in total:

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Soft Spring Roll Wrappers (Soft Spring Roll Wrappers)      Origin: Fusion	Autumn Tart      Origin: Britain	Butter Pie      Origin: England
Äppelkuch (Luxembourg Apple Cake)      Origin: Luxembourg	Börek Sauvage (Wild Greens Börek)      Origin: France	Butterscotch Apple Pie      Origin: Scotland
A crust for custards      Origin: Britain	Baadusha      Origin: India	Buttery Onion Squares      Origin: Ireland
A second sort of lemon cheesecakes      Origin: Britain	Bacon and Egg Pasty      Origin: England	Byrek me Spinaq (Spinach Pie)      Origin: Albania
Adjarian Khachapuri (Georgian Cheese Pies)      Origin: Georgia	Bacon and Potato Pie      Origin: England	Caca boeuf (Beef Patties)      Origin: Guadeloupe
Air Fryer Beef Wellington      Origin: Britain	Bake Mete Pye (Pie of Baked Meat)      Origin: England	Cacen Blât Cwrens Duon (Blackcurrant Pie)      Origin: Welsh
Air Fryer Cheese and Onion Pasty      Origin: Britain	Bakewell Tart      Origin: Britain	Cacen Blât Gwsberis (Gooseberry Pie)      Origin: Welsh
Air Fryer Individual Chicken and Mushroom Pies      Origin: Britain	Bakewell Tart II      Origin: Britain	Cacen Blât Llus (Bilberry Pie)      Origin: Welsh
Air Fryer Mince Pies      Origin: Britain	Baklawa      Origin: Egypt	Cacen Blât Mwyar Duon (Blackberry Pie)      Origin: Welsh
Air Fryer Pastry      Origin: Britain	Ballymaloe Fruit Tarts      Origin: Ireland	Cacen Blât Riwbob (Rhubarb Pie)      Origin: Welsh
Air Fryer Sausage Rolls      Origin: Britain	Balmoral Tartlets      Origin: Scotland	Cacen Waed Gwyddau (Gooseblood Tart)      Origin: Welsh
Air-fryer Blackberry Pie      Origin: Britain	Banana Lumpia      Origin: Federated States Micronesia	Cacennau Bach Jam (Jam Cheese Tarts)      Origin: Welsh
Akume with Ademe Sauce      Origin: Togo	Banbury Tarts      Origin: Britain	Canadian butter tarts      Origin: Canada
Al-Motubug (Stuffed Pastry Squares)      Origin: Saudi Arabia	Banitsa      Origin: Bulgaria	Caribbean Patty Crust      Origin: American
Aliter Dulcia III (Another Sweet III)      Origin: Roman	Barbagiuan      Origin: Monaco	Carragheen Blackberry Flan      Origin: Ireland
Aloo Pie      Origin: Trinidad	Basic Pastry      Origin: England	Cassata Siciliana II (Sicilian Cassata II)      Origin: Ireland
American Apple Pie      Origin: American	Basyniai (Walnut and Fig Cakes)      Origin: Roman	Cassava Pie      Origin: Bermuda
American Shortcrust Pastry      Origin: American	Bayerischer Käsekuchen (Classic Bavarian Cheesecake)      Origin: Germany	Celtic Cakes      Origin: Scotland
Anglo-Indian Dal Pitha      Origin: Anglo-Indian	Beef Steak and Kidney Pudding      Origin: Britain	České koláče (Czech Kolachke)      Origin: Czech
Antiguan Papaya Pie      Origin: Antigua	Beef Wellington      Origin: Britain	Char Siu Bao (Steamed Barbecued Pork Dumplings)      Origin: China
Apple and Blackberry Pasty      Origin: England	Bilberry 'Mucky Mouth' Tart      Origin: Britain	Char Siu Bao (Steamed Barbecued Pork Dumplings)      Origin: Hong Kong
Apple and Cream Pie      Origin: American	Bilberry Cheese Tart      Origin: Britain	Chastletes (Little Castles)      Origin: England
Apple and Pear Harvest Pie      Origin: South Africa	Blackberry and Meadowsweet Custard Pasty      Origin: Britain	Cheese and Fish Pie      Origin: Britain
Apple and Pear Tarte Tatin      Origin: France	Blueberry Cheese Tart      Origin: Britain	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Sint Eustatius
Apple and Whitebeam Berry Pie      Origin: Ireland	Bocaditos de Frambuesa y Queso (Raspberry and Cheese Bites)      Origin: Spain	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Sint Maarten
Apple and Wild Service Berry Pie      Origin: Ireland	Bolivian Salteñas      Origin: Bolivia	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Saba
Apple Dicky      Origin: England	Bonnie Prince Pudding      Origin: Scotland	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Aruba
Apple Pasty      Origin: England	Breadfruit Pie      Origin: Saint Lucia	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Bonaire
Apple Pie      Origin: Britain	Brik Dannouni (Stuffed Lamb Turnovers)      Origin: Tunisia	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Curacao
Apple Pie      Origin: Britain	Briouat à la Viande Hachée (Briouat with Minced Meat Filling)      Origin: Mali	Cheese Pastechi      Origin: Suriname
Apple Tart Spiced with Herb Bennet Root      Origin: Britain	British Pumpkin Pie      Origin: British	Cheesecake      Origin: Britain
Apricot Kolaches      Origin: Czech	Broccoli Pasty      Origin: England	Cheesecake Pecan Pie      Origin: American
Asabia el Aroos (Brides' Fingers)      Origin: Afghanistan	Bur      Origin: Somalia
Australian Meat Pie      Origin: Australia	Burek      Origin: Bosnia

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