The Circus Mule that inspired a beloved recipe

 By Kimberly Grist

Pioneers learned to alter food recipes according to their available resources. During the Civil War, people were introduced to the idea that they could eat their horse's oats. When pecans were in short supply, oatmeal pie was a good substitute for Southern pecan pie. Shoo-Fly Pie was another recipe created using readily available everyday food staples.

Origination


The origin of the recipe began in 1876 as Centennial Cake to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence.

Two Versions

The very nature of the main ingredient, sticky-sweet molasses, is enough to imagine why it might attract a fly or two that one would need to shoo. The recipe has two versions. The dry-bottom pie, similar to a coffee cake, is guessed to be the original version. The wet-bottom pie is baked in a pastry crust with a gooey cake-like bottom and a crumb-streusel-like topping. 

Shoofly the Boxing Mule

A Lancaster trading card depicting Shoofly the Boxing Mule. Courtesy of William Woys Weaver

The most widely accepted explanation for the name "Shoofly pie" is that it originated from a popular brand of molasses in the 19th century. Shoofly molasses, along with Shoofly flour and Shoofly horse powder, was named after a mule named Shoofly, who was part of a boxing circus that toured southeastern Pennsylvania in that era. The mule's name was inspired by the well-known song "Shoo-Fly, Don't Bother Me." Consequently, the mule's name became associated with various ingredients used in making Shoofly pie.

https://library.duke.edu/rubenstein/scriptorium/sheetmusic/b/b04/b0409/b0409-1-72dpi.html

Shoofly the  Folk Song

"Shoo Fly, Don't Bother Me," also known as "Shew Fly," is a folk song that originated in the 1860s and has remained popular ever since. During the Spanish-American War of 1898, soldiers sang this song to cope with the many flies and mosquitoes that spread diseases, such as Yellow Fever. Today, it is most commonly sung by children.

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