Monthly Recipe: How A Kentucky Motel Owner Turned Sawdust Pie Into A Southern Icon

From Southern Living, “Behind the funny name is a touching family story.

Some recipes just can’t get a break. 

Beaten biscuits, dump cake, and Kentucky sawdust pie must have been named by people who never made them. Did they not know how good they taste?

Take that ooey-gooey sawdust pie. It originated in the 1970s with the late Patti Tullar, who, along with her husband Bill, opened a motel, restaurant, and ice cream parlor in Grand Rapids, Kentucky, what was a sleepy little town about 30 minutes east of Paducah.

The gooey pie is a mix of chopped pecans, coconut, egg whites, sugar, and graham cracker crumbs, which is baked and topped with sliced bananas and whipped cream. It became a favorite with tourists at Patti’s 1880s Restaurant. But it was relatively unknown until Patti received a letter from Bon Appetit magazine in 1983 asking for the recipe.

A reader from St. Louis had enjoyed a slice while visiting Kentucky. While Patti normally didn’t give out her recipes, this was too good of a marketing opportunity. So she sent the magazine the recipe, and thereafter her sawdust pie was on the map.”

For more and the recipe go to:  Sawdust Pie