I love pumpkin pie.
It reminds me of so many happy family gatherings when, after clearing the Thanksgiving table, we’d enjoy pumpkin pie, coffee and deeply satisfying conversation well into the evening.
My mother’s pumpkin pie has a thick, fluffy crust. She bakes her pies “well done” with a slight char on the top, giving them a unique and delicious oaky flavor.
Lucky for me, I’ve enjoyed her unique pumpkin pie experience for many years and will do so again this Thursday.
But after recently learning about the remarkable history of pumpkin pie, I love it more than ever.
According to History. com, pumpkin is a fruit that dates back 10,000 years ago to Central America, where indigenous people boiled and baked it in many forms.
After the “New World” was discovered, European explorers brought pumpkin seeds back home and cultivated them.
Pumpkin soon became part of “England’s highly developed pie-making culture, which had for centuries been producing complex stuffed pastries in sweet and savory varieties,” says History. com.
When the Pilgrims arrived in America in 1620, they brought their familiarity with pumpkins with them.
In fact, says History. com, “A year later, when the 50 surviving colonists were joined by a group of 90 Wampanoag for a three-day harvest celebration, it’s likely that pumpkin was on the table in some form.”
Without ovens, though, the Pilgrims initially had no way to make pumpkin pie.
As the Pilgrims flourished in New England, they preferred “apples, pears, and quince tarts instead of their former Pumpkin Pies,” wrote Massachusetts ship captain Edward Johnson in 1654.
This was probably because the process of turning pumpkin into a pie filling was time-consuming and laborious. It was much easier and faster to make a fruit pie.
Perhaps that’s the chief reason pumpkin pie didn’t catch on in America until 1796 with the publication of America’s very first cookbook, “American Cookery,” written by New England writer Amelia Simmons.
Simmons’ pumpkin pie recipe was unlike any that came before it. She used eggs, sugar and cream to create a filling more like custard or pudding — the delicious filling we enjoy now.
However, it would be years before Simmons’ version of pumpkin pie gained popularity beyond the New England
