Monroe Boston Strause

Monroe Boston Strause was an American piemaker whose innovations included graham-cracker crust, chiffon pie, and black-bottom pie. He was a "pie celebrity" whose name was "a household word."^[1]

Strause was born in 1900 in Los Angeles. In 1919 he was hired by his uncle who ran a wholesale pie business. In his early twenties, Strause took over the business, following his uncle's retirement. He became a consultant in the 1930s after selling his company.^[1]

Because of improvements in oven reliability and consistency, homemade and increasingly complex cakes had been overtaking pie as a popular American dessert, which inspired Strause to his experimentations.^[1] He considered pie to be the "Great American Dessert," superior to most other foods.^[2]

Strause's technique was more scientific in nature; he called his recipes "formulas." The publisher of his book Pie Marches On described it this way: "He has reduced pie baking to an exact science and measures each ingredient with the care of a pharmacist." His focus on quality combined with secrecy and showmanship allowed him, according to The Globe & Mail, to earn "a bank president’s salary out of pie."^[2]

He was an early pioneer of the celebrity chef ethos.^[2] In 1960, Strause was hired as a consultant by Cannon Foods Inc. of Bridgeville, Delaware, to create recipes based on Cannon food products.^[3]

Strause and his wife Violet Marian had a daughter, born May 21, 1938,^[4] and a son.^[5]

Strause died in 1981.^[6]

Books

• Pies for Profit (1938)^[3]
• Pie Marches On (1939)

Patents

• Dry grater^[7]
• Meringue pie^[8]
• Pie marker, method of finishing meringue pies and the resulting meringue pie^[9]
• Method of making fruit pie ^[10]

Images from patents