📜 Origin story
Who Invented Pecan Pie?
The famous answer comes from a corn syrup company. Old church and city cookbooks tell an older story, and nobody gets to sign the pie.
By Americanized · Edited by JP Lambiase · October 19, 2026
Nobody can name one inventor: Karo made it famous; Southern cooks made it first. A New Orleans cookbook printed a pecan pie with cane syrup in 1900 and a Dallas church cookbook printed one with dark corn syrup in 1925, while the oldest pecan pie in print is a custard pie from 1886.
The company story
The best-known answer comes from the corn syrup maker. Karo's own history page says the company introduced its light and dark corn syrups in 1902, and its timeline marks the 1930s as the decade pecan pie was born down South. It does not name a baker.
The version many people repeat, that the wife of a company sales executive came up with the pie, is the company's account as Wikipedia relays it. Food historians have since found pecan pies that are older.
What the old cookbooks show
Rebecca Sharpless, a historian at Texas Christian University, wrote on the UNC Press blog in 2022 that she had once repeated the company story herself and got it wrong. In old cookbooks she found a pecan pie made with dark Karo in a 1925 Sunday school cookbook from the First Baptist Church of Dallas, credited to Mrs. H. W. Woodruff. By 1929 and 1930, a Memphis bakery and a Shreveport cafeteria were selling Karo pecan pies by name.
Older still is "A Book of Famous Old New Orleans Recipes," from 1900. It has a pecan pie made with Louisiana syrup and calls Slidell, Louisiana, the original home of the pie. So Louisiana has the oldest recipe we found for the syrupy pie most people picture.
Before syrup, there was custard
The oldest pecan pie in print is a custard pie from 1886, a recipe Wikipedia traces to Harper's Bazaar. It was a cream pie with nuts, not the gooey slice on today's table. Sharpless found that style lasting into the 1930s: a 1922 recipe from Myrtle Mainer Neff, wife of Texas governor Pat Neff, thickens milk and egg yolks with cornstarch and serves the pie with whipped cream. In the late 1920s, San Saba, Texas, called its cream-style pecan pie world-famous.
Wikipedia also notes a 1929 congressional club cookbook pie made with only eggs, milk, sugar and pecans. That is why the fair line is that corn syrup is the 20th-century version. Our old-fashioned pecan pie without corn syrup belongs to that older family: brown sugar, milk, eggs and a splash of vinegar, from a King Arthur Baking employee-owner's family recipe.
How it became a Southern icon
The nut is ancient. Wikipedia says archaeological evidence in Texas suggests Native Americans used pecans more than 8,000 years ago, and the word comes from an Algonquin word. The pie as a Southern symbol is much younger. Wikipedia notes that neither Fannie Farmer nor the Joy of Cooking printed it before 1940, credits the syrup's makers with popularizing it, and, citing James McWilliams's book "The Pecan," ties it closely to Southern culture in the 1940s and 1950s.
Our classic Southern pecan pie follows King Arthur Baking's version, with light and dark corn syrup and toasted pecans. Find it with the rest of our holiday pies and Thanksgiving recipes.
Questions people ask
Does pecan pie have to have corn syrup?
No. Most modern recipes use it, but corn syrup is the 20th-century version. Older pecan pies used milk, cane syrup or brown sugar, and some were plain custards with nuts.
Did the French invent pecan pie in New Orleans?
Some writers say so, according to Wikipedia, but no early French recipe has turned up. What we can say is that Louisiana has the oldest recipe we found, from a New Orleans cookbook printed in 1900.
How many slices should a pecan pie make?
King Arthur Baking suggests cutting a 9-inch pecan pie into 10 slices instead of 8, because it is so rich. It also refrigerates leftovers and suggests eating them within about a day.
Parts of this history are disputed. Where sources disagree, we say so.
Sources
More food facts
Cook it
Classic Southern Pecan Pie
The corn syrup pecan pie: eggs, light and dark corn syrup, butter and toasted pecans in a flaky par-baked crust, baked until puffed and just set and crowned with pecan halves.
Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie Without Corn Syrup
Pecan pie the way it was made before corn syrup took over: a smooth custard of brown sugar, milk, eggs, butter and a splash of vinegar, with toasted diced pecans inside and halves roasting on top.
Easy Pecan Pie Bars
Pecan pie for a crowd with no rolling pin: a press-in brown sugar shortbread crust topped with chopped pecans in a quick honey, butter and brown sugar caramel, baked in one 9 by 13-inch pan.
Southern Lemon Chess Pie
The South's pantry pie: eggs, sugar, butter, lemon and a spoonful of cornmeal baked in a par-baked crust until the top turns into a thin, crackly sugar crust over a soft, tart custard.
Classic American Pumpkin Pie
The Thanksgiving pie: a smooth custard of pumpkin puree, eggs, heavy cream, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a par-baked all-butter crust, pulled from the oven while the center still wobbles.