SC - OOP: Chess Pie

[harper at idt.net]

And it came to pass on 12 Jan 01, , that sjk3 at cornell.edu wrote:

>     I tried looking this up in the online OED (working for a major 
> university does have some advantages :-), but had no luck.  Webster's 
> Third New International Dictionary has the following:
> 
> "chess pie also chess cake \'ches\ n [prob. alter. of cheese pie, cheese 
> cake] : a dessert consisting essentially of a filling made of eggs, 
> butter, and sugar and baked in individual tart shells of rich pastry"

Thanks.  The impression I've gotten is that there is no definitive 
answer.

Has anyone noticed that food names seem to inspire a lot of 
speculative, retroactive etymology?  People come up with all kinds 
of fanciful stories to explain why such-and-such food got its name.


Lady Brighid ni Chiarain
Settmour Swamp, East (NJ)
mka Robin Carroll-Mann
harper at idt.net