Today's food holiday: "National Peach Cobbler Day"!

Cobblers are variations of pies requiring less flour, cook quickly and easier to make in rugged conditions like  the early Americans had. According to The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America, without brick ovens, colonial cooks often made cobblers in pots over an open fire (like dutch oven cooking). This hearty dessert has been a southern staple for generations. 

It is a variation of a meat pie that originated in Europe. It is similar to a pot pie that you see today but cobblers have a thicker top crust or biscuit crust with fruits inside instead of meat. As with a pie, a scoop of ice cream on top is great!

What is a cobbler?
Cobblers are an American deep-dish fruit dessert or pie with a thick crust (usually a biscuit crust) and a fruit filling (such as peaches, apples, berries). Some versions are enclosed in the crust, while others have a drop-biscuit or crumb topping.

The Dictionary of Americanisms traces the first instance of the word cobbler (as it applies to a pie dish) in print to 1859: "Cobbler...a sort of pie, baked in a pot lined with dough of great thickness, upon which fruit is placed."

Peach History Trivia
Fresh Georgia peaches are available only 16 weeks each year, from mid-May to August. Franciscan monks introduced peaches to St. Simons and Cumberland Islands along Georgia's coast in 1571. By the mid-1700s, peaches and plums were cultivated by the Cherokee Indians. The first peaches were planted in Georgia in the 18th century. The first commercial production did not occur until the mid-19th century. Raphael Moses, a planter and Confederate officer from Columbus, was among the first to market peaches within Georgia in 1851 and is credited with being the first to ship and sell peaches successfully outside the South.

The first Georgia Peach festival was staged in Fort Valley in 1986 where it still remains 25 years later, usually in early June. At the festival, they present a contender for the "World's Largest Peach Cobbler" to beat their record in 2007. The colossal cobbler was 11x5 feet and about 8 inches deep, made with 90 pounds of butter, 150 pounds of sugar, 150 pounds of flour, 32 gallons of milk and 75 gallons of peaches. 


(Source: Wikipedia, worldslargestpeachcobbler.com, whatscookingamerica.net, peach-cobbler.net, itawambahistory.blogspot.com & voices.washingtonpost.com; photo credit: The Lady and Sons Peach Cobbler, Paula Deen, foodnetwork.com; Dutch oven pot of peach cobbler, barbequelovers.com; bushels of peaches, kingorchards.com; world's largest peach cobbler, home.earthlink.net)