Where Did Pumpkin Pie Come From?

pie with a squash? The history of how pumpkin pie became so popular is a story that smashes together medieval traditions, indigenous food from Africa and the America's and the most sought after goods of ancient trade routes through Asia and the Middle East. But first, let's start simply with the pie, which was more popular during the Middle Ages in Europe than it is in the US today, according to Ken Albila, a professor of history at the University of the Pacific

in Stockton, California. He's also the author of more than twenty five books about food and food history, including food in early modern Europe. He told this via email. There were a lot of pies, fruits, meat, fish, vegetables in medieval times. Pies looked much different than the ones we

know today, and people didn't eat the crusts. That's because pie crusts at the time were made of a dough that was thick, bland, and stiff, not flaky or buttery, and we're most often single use cooking and serving vessels. They were made free form, without pie dishes or plates, so they stood higher and had to be harder than

what we're used to seeing in pies today. Albala said people poured hot, gelatinous gravy into a hole at the top to keep air out, and often, but I don't think always, they broke open the pie and scooped out the contents, throwing away the crust. Some historical evidence shows that those crusts may have been soaked and eaten by servants or the poor. But all that ended a round the fourteen to fifteen hundreds, when people figured out how to or perhaps could more widely afford, to make crusts

more tender. When European colonists arrived in North America, eating pie crust became normal and a very important part of life. A food was scarce, especially during winters, and eating pie crust became a great way to stretch small amounts of food to feed hungry people. By the sixteen hundreds, eating a slice was the way to savor pie. As for the filling. In medieval Europe, there was no pumpkin. Instead, Europeans made pies with other gourds, favoring varieties that originated

in Africa. Europeans only got their first taste of pumpkins when explorers, colonizers, and slave traders brought pumpkins back from their trips to the Americas. While it took years for Europeans to warm up to some other foods from the Americas, and things like potatoes and tomatoes were considered poisonous, they took to pumpkins quickly because they were similar to the gourds that they were already familiar with. But Wheater Albala said,

pumpkin pie, as we know it is fundamentally medieval. Pumpkin spice is a classic medieval combination. And yes, let's talk about the spice combination that we today associate with autumn desserts and coffee shops. In the Middle Ages, it wasn't just used for sweet pies. A similar spice combination was used in everything that folks could afford to during that time period. Not only did it taste good, But those same spices were also considered a status symbol that wealthy

people used to flaunt their riches. Sugar was rare too, so if you could offer guests a feast featuring spices, sugar, and vegetables from the New World, you were rolling. Albala said, you find the cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg combo everywhere up into the sixteenth century. By then they were often combined with sugar too. There are standard and poodare for combinations

that are spicier, with pepper, sometimes grains of paradise. But what we think of as pumpkin spice goes into most recipes until French haw cuisine in the seventeenth century begins to banish them to the end of the meal along with sweets. Ultimately, by the eighteenth century, the British lost their love for pumpkin pie and began to negatively associate pumpkins with Native Americans. They instead preferred apple, pear and

quince pies, which they considered more sophisticated. But at the same time, conists in America began to make pumpkin pie on their own. Consider the book American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. It's considered by food historians to be a kind of culinary declaration of independence from England. It's the first cookbook ever written by an American featuring ingredients indigenous to America

and published in America. Simmons recipe for pumpkin pie goes one court stewed and strained pumpkin, three pints cream, nine beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg, and ginger, laid into paste numbers seven or three and with a doe, spur cross and checker it and baked in dishes three quarters of an hour. Simmons recipe is very close to what we recognize today as traditional pumpkin pie, with one exception. Her

recipe calls for that top crust. By the early eighteen hundreds, though, pumpkin pie became a single crust pie and a mainstay of American cuisine and Thanksgiving feasts. By the way, if you prefer your pie in the morning, perhaps after a Thanksgiving feast with a cup of coffee, you're upholding another American tradition. Up until the late nineteenth century, people regularly

ate breakfast pie, including flavors like pumpkin and apple. Breakfast pie was on hotel and restaurant menus and held a regular spot on the breakfast menus in the homes of people like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell homes. Today's episode was written by Shan Chavis and produced by Tyler Clang. For more in this and lots of other tasty tip fix visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is

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