It is unknown where the name "chess pie" came from, although there are several theories. The most likely is "chess-cake pie", as in cheese cake pie, became chess pie over time.
Martha Washington's Chess Cake recipe is similar to today's chess pie. The 1881 cookbook
Buckeye Cookery—With Hints on Practical Housekeeping included a recipe submitted by Mrs. J. Carson of
Glendale, Minnesota. The recipe maintained the basic custard ingredients of eggs, butter, and sugar, but the egg whites were whipped into a meringue and spread on top. One of the most popular theories is that it is an
eggcorn of "It's just pie" due to a misinterpretation of the pronunciation "It's jes' pie" in
Southern American English. The pie was thought to be so simple any home cook with eggs, butter and sugar would know what to do. It also contains no fruit, as most pies did at the time. Chess pie is the South's most searched-for Thanksgiving pie. Despite the pie's iconic status in the South, no recipe for "Chess Pie" appears in the first Southern cookbook,
Mary Randolph's 1824
The Virginia Housewife. Food writer
Jean Anderson characterizes the early recipes for transparent pudding, such as "Mary Randolph's Transparent Pudding" (containing no milk) in the 1825 edition are "for all intents and purposes chess pie". Recipes for "Chess Pie" made without milk can be found in early 20th-century cookbooks. Variations of the chess pie include transparent pie, molasses pie, brown sugar pie, syrup pie, and vinegar pie. ==Composition==