As you are standing in line with your food plate at your family’s Thanksgiving dinner you reach the infamous dessert table. The table is filled with a plethora of sugar, spice, and everything nice-filled items. You reach for your piece of pumpkin pie and your aunt’s iconic pumpkin roll. As you are savoring these sweet symphonies of flavors you question the origin of these delicious desserts. How long have these classics been so-called classics?
The origin of these fall flavors began way back as early as 3500 B.C. Camryn Brewer of USC Annenberg Media says it all started with Native Americans roasting pumpkin meat on the fire for sustenance. It was even said that they used the pumpkin’s skin to weave mats. Here enter the early settlers. After finding their way to “new” land in the early 15th century, Native Americans introduced the settlers to their fabulous fruits. The pumpkin craze truly began because colonizers relied heavily on pumpkins as a food source. They would cut the top off of the pumpkin, remove the seeds, and fill the pumpkin with milk and spices. They then bake them and are left with a very simplified version of the legendary dessert we all enjoy every holiday.
These creations remained among the early settlers and did not make its way to early English households until 1653. When a famous French chef, Francois Pierre la Varenne, published a cookbook titled Le Vrai Cuisinier Francois, which translates to The True French Cook. The book contained a recipe for “Tourte of Pumpkin” a French pastry with very similar qualities to a pumpkin pie (Tippin’s Original Pies). By the 1670s families all over England could enjoy a dessert named “pumpion pie” as it began to appear in cookbooks. Contrary to popular belief, America, the so-called “homeland” of the decadent dessert, did not actually reach their land till 1796. By this time, a cookbook titled American Cookery was published. It possessed the first recipes for foods native to America. A recipe for a distant cousin of the present-day pie was in the book where pumpkin puddings were baked in a crust. The craze continued to expand.
Fast forward to 1937 a headline from the New York Herald Tribune of Sept. 17, read, “Pumpkin Pie Season Opens Tomorrow When 7,000 Pies Go on Sale in 31 Retail Stores.” By the early 1960s, Thanksgiving advertising featured not only canned pumpkin pie mix and bakery pies but also ready-to-serve frozen pies. Convenient and affordable, frozen pies caught on quickly and continue to be popular today.
There is a long intricate history of the holiday staple that can only be possible with the innovative and resourceful ideas that belonged to early Native Americans. Now, due to their extraordinary ideas, families all over the country can enjoy their favorite dessert. So, this Thanksgiving no matter how you celebrate or if you are still stuck at the kids’ table. I challenge you to expand your mind and remember historically where your favorites came from and what makes this holiday so special.
