Chess pie is a Southern pie made from a rich egg-and-sugar custard, traditionally flavored with vanilla or spices.
The filling usually combines eggs, sugar, butter, and cornmeal or flour in a pastry shell. Depending on the recipe, cooks may add vinegar, lemon juice, buttermilk, or vanilla to balance the sweetness. Baking sets the mixture into a dense, tender custard with a lightly browned surface.
Chess pie became strongly associated with the American South, although its precise name origin remains uncertain. Popular explanations include a dialect phrase describing a pie kept in a chest and a possible connection to cheese-like custard textures, but no single explanation is universally accepted.
Chess pie is not the same as buttermilk pie, despite their similar appearance. Buttermilk pie depends on buttermilk as a defining ingredient, while chess pie is characteristically thickened with cornmeal or flour. Lemon chess pie is a common variation.