A raisin fried pie I ate back in the late 1950s was the beginning of my love for those unusual confections that don’t taste or look like a slice of pie.
They’re usually half-moon shaped pieces of fried dough filled with cooked fruit and wrapped in waxed paper.
This particular raisin fried pie was made by the old Famous Pies, Inc. in Memphis. You could buy them at Handy Pantry or other convenience stores back in the day.
I loved apple, too, but the raisin ones were my favorite. I think I tried one other commercial raisin fried pie after Famous went out of business, but it wasn’t the same. I can still conjure up the taste of the Famous version.
Over the years I’ve tried various home-made fried pies that were incredible. Like the ones made by the late Jessie Perino, which they used to sell at Payne’s Bar-B-Q. A&R Bar-B-Que sells fabulous fried pies made by Andrew Pollard, who founded A&R in 1983 with his wife Rose. They even have a fried pie that’s new to me: sweet potato.
Then there were the fabulous fried pies at Alderson’s Cafe, a tiny eatery in the old town section of Olive Branch, Mississippi. I think they might have had four tables. The menu was on one legal pad, which customers passed to each other. I got the recipe for the peach filling from the woman who ran the place.
I tried my first fried pie from Flick’s Local Express in Potts Camp, Mississippi, about 30 or so years ago. The pies, which are made in Flick’s kitchen, are about an inch thick and six inches or so long. The pies, usually peach or apple, are on the counter by the cash register. They’re delicious. And they don’t taste like other fried pies I’ve eaten. I can’t detect what it is about the crust, but it tastes fantastic.
On the first day of January 2026, I decided to treat myself to a Flick’s fried pie. I hadn’t had one for a while. I walked in the door, afraid they might not have any since it was that slow time when the holidays were dragging down. But there they were, as usual, on the counter by the cash register.
I selected the biggest peach pie they had.
For years, I’d been wanting to interview whoever made the Flick’s fried pies. Employees knew I wanted to do that interview. So, during my recent visit, I was told “Miss Doll,” who makes the pies, was in the kitchen.
Doll “Miss Doll” Porter agreed to sit down at a booth and talk about those incredible concoctions, which she’s been making for decades. “I’ve been here 35 years,” Porter says. “The second owner, Flick Ash, when he bought it, it was a service station. And the kitchen and dining room were from that door to right there. And he expanded it. When I came here, there were fried pies. But there was an older lady that was doing them. And we’ve been doing it ever since.”
Porter uses the same recipe the other woman used. She uses dried fruits and sugar for the filling. “Every now and then I might do chocolate and coconut.”
She uses just a little vegetable oil when she fries them on the stove. “I fry them in a skillet.”
Making fried pies takes time. “I usually cook my fruits up a day ahead of time. Let them sit overnight.” It takes her over an hour to put the fried pies together. “That’s frying them and wrapping them,” she says.
Porter only makes pies on certain days of the week. “I usually do like 20 on Monday. They might last. If not, I’ll do more that Thursday ’cause I’m off Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.”
When I asked how often she eats fried pies, Porter says, “I don’t eat them. I used to eat them, but I don’t now. I guess ’cause I make them all the time.”
But she does have a favorite. “I like the apple better. I like that cinnamon taste.”
Porter makes other things at Flick’s, of course. “We make homemade vegetable soup in the wintertime. Homemade chili during the wintertime.”
And, she says, “Our regular lunch. We have steak and gravy and roast beef every day.”
Porter only cooks at home occasionally. “Me and my sister live together. And most of the time she gets home before I do. I cook on the weekend. We cook greens, peas, beans, smothered cabbage, meatloaf.”
Does she ever make fried pies at home? “No. I’ve made them so long.”
I called James Beard Award-winning author and chef Martha Hall Foose to get her thoughts on fried pies. Foose, who lives in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and is the author of many cookbooks, including Screen Doors and Sweet Tea, is my go-to when I want to dive deeper into Southern food.
Foose likes the personal aspect of a fried pie. “It’s all mine,” she says. “I’ll fold my wax paper down on the top of the bag. It’s like getting a little present.”
She believes fried pies might have originated in the Middle East. “They had olive oils and processed oils you could use to make them. That’s my theory.” But, she says, “In a Southern sense, they were most probably made at lumber camps when ovens weren’t really a thing.”
Fried pies were easy to make because they could be made over an open fire. “I think a lot of times people who are moving due to seasonality or displacement, for transient people, it’s easier to carry oil in a bucket or skillet of some sort, or kill something when you get there and render that instead of building an oven. Look at the Delta. We don’t have rocks. So what the fuck are you going to build it out of?”
Foose remembers when elementary school cafeterias included home-made fried pies at lunch. Before food services came on the scene, “cafeteria ladies” made fried pies. “I don’t think that’s on the dance card anymore. Much to my dismay.”
Places where Foose tried fried pies include Tom’s Fried Pies in Richland, Mississippi. “He does savory ones and sweet ones.” He also makes a “Tex Mex” one, which has “beefy vegetable stew in the middle of it. And he does apricot, which I really enjoy.”
Hubig’s Pies in New Orleans, Louisiana, makes good coconut and chocolate fried pies. “I’m never going to say no to one of those.”
Then there’s The Original Fried Pie Shop near Lambert’s Cafe in Sikeston, Missouri. “They make a damn good fried pie there. We always go there after Lambert’s when we drive up to Wisconsin.”
You can also find good fried pies from the concessions people at state fairs. “They have a quick turnover,” she says. But you need to be cautious. “Your oil can get really funky really quick if sugar leaks out and burns.”
That’s when you get that burned oil taste in a fried pie. Also, she says, “Sometimes you run into old oil issues.”
People can make their own fried pies using commercial refrigerated pie crust, Foose says.
Krusteaz has a pie crust that’s “basically just add water. And it’s already got fat and everything cut into it. It makes a really good dough for frying. When you’re making pie crust, you want that marbleized look. Streaks of butter. That’s what gives you flaking. The steam from the butter puffs it like puff pastry, but in little streaks.”
And, she says, “Crimping is key. Poke the top to let some steam escape after it’s fried to keep the crust from getting soggy.”
Instead of dry fruits, people can use fresh fruit or frozen fruit for the filling.
But making fried pies, which means making a bunch of them instead of just one pie at a time, isn’t for everybody. “They’re kind of a pain in the ass,” Foose says, adding, “If you’re making a batch of fried pies, you’ve got to be dedicated to eating a bunch of fried pies.”