I like most of my foods nice and hot. Is there a culinary reason for waiting for your pie to cool before serving? Or is it just to prevent burns?
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It definitely needs to cool to prevent burns - the filling is likely even above the boiling point of water, because it has so much sugar in it and has been in a hot oven. Eating it pleasantly warm is one thing, but it takes a long time to cool from over 100C/212F down to a nice warm/hot temperature somewhere around 50C/120F. (It's not like a cookie, which cools quickly enough so that you can (carefully) eat it fresh out of the oven. Pie has plenty of thermal mass.)
Besides that, most pies have a filling that will set as it cools. With a fruit pie, the sugary syrupy part will be pretty runny when it's hot, but it'll gel up a bit (like a jam - plenty of fruit and sugar) as it cools. And of course custard pies definitely need to cool to fully set!
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5Yup, precisely: if you want fruit *pie*, rather than fruit *soup*, you need to let it cool. – Marti Jul 22 '13 at 06:01
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In the context of getting fully set: would pumpkin pie count as a custard pie since it has eggs or a fruit pie since it's an awesome plant? – That Realtor Programmer Guy Oct 20 '19 at 20:26