This July 12 food holiday celebrates a deliciously gooey pie. Although pecan pies are usually made with roasted pecans, butter, eggs, vanilla and corn syrup, there are many variations.

Pecans are native to the southern United States, where archaeologists have found evidence of use among Native Americans more than 8,000 years ago.

The word pecan is derived from an Algonquin word, pakani.

The first pecan pies may have been made by early French settlers in New Orleans making good use of the local foodstuff.

Celebrated throughout the South, pecan pies are especially associated with Texas, where it is officially the state dessert.