my g/f is positive that McDonald’s baked apple pies do not contain apples, but rather turnips. I told her it is just an urban myth, but I would like to find the answer out for sure. Thanks.
From the Mcdonalds web site
Remember this mantra Kevin, Snopes is your friend (you’ll hear it alot at the SDMB). Anyway check out this:
http://www.snopes.com/horrors/food/mcdshake.htm
Here’s the pertinant part:
You can find the info at the bottom of the page.
While we’re on the subject, why the hell would anybody want to make mock apple pie? I found a recipe here:
http://www.nabiscoworld.com/Ritz/ri_recipes.htm
and it looks like the damn thing wouldn’t taste remotely like apple pie.
Was there an apple shortage at some time that made people want to make this? How did this travesty come into being?
The original “mock apple pie” was made with cracker barrel crackers, i.e. saltines. It’s a traditional pioneer recipe–how to make a sweet dessert with nothing but crackers and sorghum.
And everybody concerned understood perfectly well that it wasn’t intended to reproduce the flavor and texture of apples–it was only intended to put edible food on the table.
i dont care if it is, it still tastes nice. Now the Burger King Apple pies, theres a bad taste.
The thing I love about the fast food URBAN MYTHS is ask anyone who works there. No matter what the ingredients list they will always say “NO THAT ISN’T TRUE.” All of them KNOW that it’s not REALLY that.
My guess would be a mock apple pie would be something that was soft, but crusty, with lots of cinnamon.
Now, my grandmother made an “apple” crisp-with ZUCHINI!!! I shit you not. And it was actually really good-you couldn’t tell the difference.
mock apple pies , would be common in WWII when everything had to be imported into england except for what you could grow and these being stuff like turnips and other root crops
i recall a banana sandwich made from turnips softened by boiling and with added bannana flavour (one could be obtained with the luxuries in the ration coupons) , USA has never really had something like this except maybe during the great depression so , that is probably why you think there would be no need
So why the hell call it “mock apple pie”? Did they have writer’s block and couldn’t think of anything else? Did they almost call it “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Apple Pie”?
With regard to the McShakes, lots of ice-cream in here in Britain used to be labelled “non-dairy” as it was (I understand) made mainly from pork fat and certain other pig-related substances…
In fact, one of the best known ice-cream brands here in the UK is ‘Walls’, who are also famous for their… sausages.
Yum!
– Quirm
Revtim, have you ever heard the phrase, “To make a virtue of necessity”? They were half-starving pioneers, so instead of saying, “We’ve got nothing to eat but crackers tonight”, they said, “Hey, we’ve got Mock Apple Pie for supper!”
/slight hijack/
I grow a vegetable garden every summer. And EVERY year, I get WAY too much zucchini. Often, if I don’t check the plants every day, I’ll wind up with a few as big as my forearm!
Well, with one of those huge zucchini, GrizzWife made a fantastic (and I mean FAN-DARN-TASTIC!) mock apple pie.
She didn’t use apples because we grew the zucchini ourselves, didn’t want it to go to waste, and thought it’d be a fun way to “see if this works”.
It’s great while still warm, with vanilla ice cream!
/slight hijack/
As to the McDonald’s apple pies containing turnips instead, are turnips REALLY that much cheaper than apples?
I dunno, people do crazy things.
As a little lad growing up (in New Zealand, and hardly in the grip of a great depression), I can vividly remember my mother making a huge batch of Strawberry Jam, using some off-the-shelf product and an enormous quantity of tomatoes.
Vividly remember; 25 years later. :eek:
Or, they could have said “We have Aunt Millie’s Gahagafaga tonight!” or some other new name and not use an invalid comparison.
Since we’re already hijacking this thing to oblivion…
I have a cookbook put out my my grandma’s church. Think dozens of little old dutch ladies in Iowa sharing their church potluck recipes.
One of the recipes is for “mock chicken casserole.” It involves using hamburger and cream of chicken soup and other ingredients so that the end result, presumably, tastes more like chicken than beef.
I have all kinds of “why?” questions related to this recipe. Most of which will probably never be answered. Another question that will never be answered is “What does this dish taste like?” I plan on never having an opportunity to find out.
Then there was mock turtle soup…which was not made from Mock Turtles at all, Lewis Carroll notwithstanding.
Knowing just about nothing about the history of mock turtle soup, I would nevertheless guess that the “mock” idea is a pretty old one.
Also, remember that year-'round apples are a pretty recent phenomenon, dependent on cheap, reliable, refrigerated storage (for domestic crops) and cheap, reliable, refrigerated transport for foreign. I’m only 33, but I recall that when I was growing up the only year-rounders were red and golden “delicious” - hardly suitable for pie, and barely acceptable for eating out of hand. Mock apple pie made a lot more sense.
[hijack] I’ve been amazed at how many apples you can get these days - Fuji, Braeburn, Gala, Pink Lady, Cameo, Mutsu - and where they come from! Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand…free trade for all, says I.[/hijack]
My mom also used to make “apple” pie, cobbler, sauce and jelly out of zuchinni and you couldn’t tell the difference even when you knew what you were eating. I imagine you could use turnips and do the same thing.
Ma Ingalls also made “apple” pie from green pumpkin during The Long Winter.