Pickle and Cranberry Pie? Utah Concoction Grosses out the Internet

Utah may be known as the Beehive State, but it is quickly gaining a new nickname on social media: the state with the most disgusting pie ever. With the holiday season here and mouth-watering dishes being shared far and wide, Utah’s very own cranberry and pickle pie is generating plenty of buzz, and disgust, on social media, with some declaring the unique dish the grossest food item in existence.

The controversy surrounding the cranberry pickle pie was sparked ahead of Thanksgiving when Fox 13 News Utah took to Twitter with an image of strange concoction. The pie boasts bright pink-purple filling thanks to the cranberries, which is then topped with a layer of sliced pickles. Fox 13 shared the image while asking, “cranberry and pickle pie? Apparently it’s a Utah thing. Have you ever tried it?”

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Most Twitter users hadn’t in fact tried it, and according to the heavy response, nearly none are willing to take a taste. Fox 13’s tweet set off a firestorm of replies, with one person tweeting, “If the US saw what the US was doing, the US would order a military intervention in the US.” Somebody else said that while they “love pickles,” the creator of the cranberry pickle pie “deserves jail time.” A third person tweeted, “What is this monstrosity, i dont think ive ever felt so violated by pie in my life,” with somebody else going on to declare the pie “beyond disgusting.” Celebrity chefs Alex Guarnaschelli and Duff Goldman even weighed in, with Guarnaschelli simply asking “What” as Goldman tweeted, “Oh no.”

Twitter users may be able to breathe a sigh of relief, though, as The Beehive did a little digging and found out that the cranberry pickle pie may be a fake, or at the very least, not a Utah staple. According to the outlet, the recipe got its start on a blog called “lindaseccaspina remembers the invention of the wheel,” which noted that Antoinette Errante concocted the interesting dish. Seccaspina hails from Quebec, Canada, and the image alleging to be the cranberry pickle pie was allegedly taken from a 2010 Pen & Fork blog post about a Veg-a-Pickle Pie, with a little bit of confusion among friends leading to it being dubbed the cranberry pickle pie.

As for the pie? Errante reportedly did make it. The pie begins with a typical cranberry pie, which you can find a recipe for here. It is then topped with sliced pickles, creating the cranberry pickle pie. As for how it tastes, TheBeehive made the pie, with a few upgrades, and said it tasted like “cranberry pie with a hint of pickle. The cranberry filling was tart enough on its own that, even though you could taste the crunch and the sourness of the pickle, it wasn’t overwhelming and it was only a few notes off from the tartness of the filling. I was surprised that I ate as much of it as I did. Was it excellent? No. But was it terrible? Also no.”