I was a bit surprised to see lemon meringue pies claimed as American ...there's a beautiful old English recipe for them too, as well as "Queen Charlotte's Tart" which uses oranges and lemons for the filling.   I love a good rhubarb pie myself, although I tend to make rhubarb or gooseberry into a crumble instead - and the best ever crumbles are blackberry and apple, in my opinion at least.

Mincemeat was mentioned earlier - back in history they would have included real meat, but today the closest we come to that normally is to put some suet into the mixture of dried fruits and peel (and brandy). Definitely a feature of Christmas food. I make small mince pies and use lemon juice in the pastry.

As to meat pies - oh, the choices we have! Steak and kidney, chicken and ham (or chicken and mushroom, but no one eats mushrooms in this house but me), steak and ale, lamb, veal and ham, raised pork pies ....*drool*

Don't have the lyrics to hand, but there was a great eulogy to American pies in the film "Michael", sung by Andie McDowell.

Anne