pumpkin pie

{{Infobox food

| name = Pumpkin pie

| image = file:Pumpkin-Pie-Whole-Slice.jpg

| image_size = 250px

| caption =

| place_of_origin = Canada, United States, United Kingdom

| region =

| creator =

| course = Dessert

| type = Pie

| served =

| main_ingredient = Pie shell, pumpkin, eggs, condensed milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, allspice

| variations =

| calories =

| other =

}}

Pumpkin pie is a dessert pie with a spiced, pumpkin-based custard filling. The pumpkin and pumpkin pie are both a symbol of harvest time,{{cite book | last=Damerow | first=G. | title=The Perfect Pumpkin: Growing/Cooking/Carving | publisher=Storey Publishing, LLC | year=2012 | isbn=978-1-60342-741-8 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8x3pt_qZxOkC&pg=PA9 | access-date=March 31, 2022 | page=9}}{{cite book | last1=Ott | first1=C. | last2=Cronon | first2=W. | title=Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon | publisher=University of Washington Press | series=Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-295-80444-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJkcpAHkKHMC&pg=PR11 | access-date=March 31, 2022 | page=11}} and pumpkin pie is generally eaten during the fall and early winter. In the United States and Canada it is usually prepared for Thanksgiving,Rombauer, I. S and M.R. Becker. 1980. The Joy of Cooking. Bobbs-Merrill Company, New York City. Christmas,{{citation needed|date=December 2024}} and other occasions when pumpkin is in season.

The pie's filling ranges in color from orange to brown and is baked in a single pie shell, usually without a top crust. The pie is generally flavored with pumpkin pie spice, a blend that includes cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves or allspice. The pie is usually prepared with canned pumpkin, but fresh-cooked pumpkin can be used.

Overview

File:Recette Tarte citrouille etape 1.jpg

Cooked and puréed pumpkin flesh is mixed with eggs, evaporated milk, sugar, and spices.{{Cite web |last=Terrell |first=Ellen |date=2017-11-20 |title=A Brief History of Pumpkin Pie in America {{!}} Inside Adams: Science, Technology & Business |url=https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-pumpkin-pie-in-america/ |access-date=2022-04-05 |website=blogs.loc.gov |archive-date=2022-03-24 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220324060857/https://blogs.loc.gov/inside_adams/2017/11/a-brief-history-of-pumpkin-pie-in-america/ |url-status=live }} The pie is then baked in a pie shell and sometimes topped with whipped cream or marshmallows.Galarza, Daniela (November 9, 2021). [https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/11/09/pumpkin-tassies-recipe/ "These mini pumpkin pies taste like fall, thanks to a trio of spices"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211116061109/https://www.washingtonpost.com/food/2021/11/09/pumpkin-tassies-recipe/ |date=2021-11-16 }}. The Washington Post. Retrieved March 28, 2022.

Pies made from fresh pumpkins typically use sugar pumpkins, also known as pie pumpkins, which measure about {{convert|6|to|8|in|cm|abbr=off}} in diameter, approximately the size of a large grapefruit.{{cite book | last=Daley | first=R. | title=In the Sweet Kitchen: The Definitive Baker's Companion | publisher=Artisan | year=2001 | isbn=978-1-57965-208-1 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9hm09yx6RDMC&pg=PA331 | access-date=March 31, 2022 | page=331}} They are considerably smaller than the typically larger varieties used to carve jack o'lanterns, contain significantly less pulp, and have a less stringy texture. Other pumpkin varieties or related winter squashes, such as butternut squash, are sometimes used. The flesh is roasted until soft and puréed before being blended with the other ingredients.

Pumpkin pies are often made from canned pumpkin purée.{{cite web | author=Denenberg, Zoe | title=We Tasted 5 Grocery Store Pumpkin Purees, But Libby's Still Captured Our Hearts | website=Southern Living | date=November 7, 2019 | url=https://www.southernliving.com/food/veggies/squash/pumpkin/libbys-canned-pumpkin-taste-test | access-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-date=May 17, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220517174756/https://www.southernliving.com/food/veggies/squash/pumpkin/libbys-canned-pumpkin-taste-test | url-status=live }} Libby's canned pumpkin, the most popular brand, uses the Dickinson pumpkin variety of Cucurbita moschata solely, though other brands can include any of a number of varieties of Cucurbita pepo or Cucurbita maxima.{{cite web | title=CPG Sec 585.725 "Pumpkin" | website=U.S. Food and Drug Administration | date=February 10, 2020 | url=https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/cpg-sec-585725-pumpkin-labeling-articles-made-certain-varieties-squash | access-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220331171326/https://www.fda.gov/regulatory-information/search-fda-guidance-documents/cpg-sec-585725-pumpkin-labeling-articles-made-certain-varieties-squash | url-status=dead }}{{cite web | last=Gonzalez | first=Ana | title=Does canned pumpkin contain real pumpkin? We went to the grocery store to find out. | website=KPRC | date=September 10, 2021 | url=https://www.click2houston.com/features/2021/09/10/does-canned-pumpkin-contain-real-pumpkin-we-went-to-the-grocery-store-to-find-out/ | access-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-date=April 7, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220407113611/https://www.click2houston.com/features/2021/09/10/does-canned-pumpkin-contain-real-pumpkin-we-went-to-the-grocery-store-to-find-out/ | url-status=live }}{{cite web|last=Richardson|first=R. W.|url=http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/cgc_reports/squash95.pdf|title=Squash and Pumpkin|publisher=United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Plant Germplasm System|access-date=November 23, 2014|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924160527/http://www.ars-grin.gov/npgs/cgc_reports/squash95.pdf|archive-date=September 24, 2015}} Packaged pumpkin pie filling with sugar and spices already included is also sold.

Sweet potato pie uses a similar recipe, with mashed sweet potato instead of pumpkin.[https://www.timeinc.net/southernliving/food/entertaining/old-fashioned-pies-cobblers-recipes%3Fsource%3Ddam]{{dead link|date=January 2018}}

History

File:Pastel de calabaza.jpg

The pumpkin is native to North America. The pumpkin was an early export to France; from there it was introduced to Tudor England, and the flesh of the "pompion" was quickly accepted as pie filling. The Columbian Exchange is credited with the fusion of ingredients needed to create pumpkin pie. Those ingredients consisted of European wheat, North American pumpkins, and sugar from the Canary Islands.{{Cite book |last=Anastopoulo |first=Rossi |title=Sweet Land of Liberty: A History of America in 11 Pies |publisher=Abrams Press |location=New York |pages=37–59}} During the seventeenth century, pumpkin pie recipes with the pumpkin sliced, fried and then baked in a pie crust with butter, sugar and raisins could be found in English cookbooks, such as Hannah Woolley's The Gentlewoman's Companion and The Queen-like Closet Andrew F. Smith, [http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t170.e0724 "Pumpkins"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604014510/https://www.oxfordreference.com/display/10.1093/acref/9780195154375.001.0001/acref-9780195154375 |date=2024-06-04 }}, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Food and Drink in America. Ed. Gordon Campbell. Oxford University Press, 2003. Saint Mary's College of California. December 21, 2011.Woolley, Hannah, The Gentlewoman's Companion ..., 3rd ed. (London, England: Edward Thomas, 1682), [https://books.google.com/books?id=X-NmAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA220 "Pumpion pye", pp. 220–221.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240604014456/https://books.google.com/books?id=X-NmAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA220#v=onepage&q&f=false |date=2024-06-04 }}{{Cite web |title=A pumpkin pie recipe from 17th century England |url=https://www.folger.edu/blogs/shakespeare-and-beyond/pumpkin-pie-recipe-17th-century-england/}} Pumpkin "pies" made by early American colonists were more likely to be a savory soup made and served in a pumpkin{{Cite episode|title=American Classic IX: Pumpkin Pie|url=http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/whole-pumpkin-soup-0166418.html|series=Good Eats|access-date=2016-09-22|archive-date=2016-10-14|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161014005816/http://www.foodnetwork.com/videos/whole-pumpkin-soup-0166418.html|url-status=live}} than a sweet custard in a crust. Pumpkins were also stewed and made into ale by colonists. An early appearance of a more modern, custard-like pumpkin pie was in American Cookery, a cookbook published in 1796.{{Citation |last=Amelia Simmons |title=American Cookery |date=2011-05-16 |url=http://archive.org/details/american_cookery_1105_librivox |access-date=2022-04-05}} It used a sweet custard filling in a pie crust, with spices similar to the ones used today.

It was not until the early nineteenth century that recipes appeared in Canadian cookbooks,{{cite book |last1=Traill |first1=C.P. |title=The Canadian Settler's Guide |date=1855 |publisher=The Old Countryman Office |location=Toronto |page=128 |url=http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.37099/130?r=0&s=1 |access-date=August 1, 2019}} or that pumpkin pie became a common addition to the Thanksgiving dinner. The Pilgrims brought the pumpkin pie back to New England.{{cite web|last=Colquhoun|first=Kate|date=December 24, 2007|title=A Dessert With a Past|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/opinion/24colquhoun.html?th&emc=th|access-date=December 4, 2010|newspaper=The New York Times|archive-date=December 1, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171201135944/http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/24/opinion/24colquhoun.html?th&emc=th|url-status=live}} In the United States after the Civil War, the pumpkin pie was resisted in Southern states as a symbol of Yankee culture imposed on the South, where there was no tradition of eating pumpkin pie. Many Southern cooks instead made sweet potato pie, or added bourbon and pecans to give the pumpkin pie a Southern touch.{{cite web |url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/thanksgiving-pumpkin-pie-culture-war |title=How Pumpkin Pie Sparked a 19th-Century Culture War |work=Atlas Obscura |first1=Ariel |last1=Knoebel |date=November 21, 2017 |access-date=November 22, 2017 |archive-date=November 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171123062616/https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/thanksgiving-pumpkin-pie-culture-war |url-status=live }}

Today, throughout much of Canada and the United States, it is traditional to serve pumpkin pie after Thanksgiving dinner.{{cite journal | last=Snell | first=Rachel | title=As North American as Pumpkin Pie: Cookbooks and the Development of National Cuisine in North America, 1796-1854 – Cuizine | journal=Cuizine: The Journal of Canadian Food Cultures / Cuizine: Revue des cultures culinaires au Canada | volume=5 | issue=2 | date=October 7, 2014 | issn=1918-5480 | url=https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/cuizine/2014-v5-n2-cuizine01533/1026771ar/ | access-date=March 28, 2022 | page= | doi=10.7202/1026771ar | doi-access=free | archive-date=March 28, 2022 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220328140913/https://www.erudit.org/en/journals/cuizine/2014-v5-n2-cuizine01533/1026771ar/ | url-status=live }}{{cite book | last1=Ott | first1=C. | last2=Cronon | first2=W. | title=Pumpkin: The Curious History of an American Icon | publisher=University of Washington Press | series=Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books | year=2012 | isbn=978-0-295-80444-6 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JJkcpAHkKHMC&pg=PR5 | access-date=March 28, 2022 | page=5}}

Pumpkin pies were discouraged from Thanksgiving dinners in the United States in 1947 as part of a voluntary egg rationing campaign promoted by the Truman Administration, mainly because of the eggs used in the recipe.{{cite web|url=https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/the-way-we-ate-the-year-harry-truman-passed-on-pumpkin-pie/|title=The Way We Ate: The Year Harry Truman Passed on Pumpkin Pie|first=Michele|last=Humes|work=Diner's Journal|publisher=The New York Times|date=November 23, 2009|access-date=November 17, 2017|archive-date=May 7, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190507123241/https://dinersjournal.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/23/the-way-we-ate-the-year-harry-truman-passed-on-pumpkin-pie/|url-status=live}}{{cite web | title=Thanksgiving, Truman and turkey: Here's how Americans almost had a turkey-free holiday | website=fox61.com | date=November 28, 2019 | url=https://www.fox61.com/article/news/thanksgiving-truman-and-turkey-heres-how-americans-almost-had-a-turkey-free-holiday/520-0cff3184-bdc5-47c6-b105-f1ba56567d4e | access-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-date=April 7, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407070923/https://www.fox61.com/article/news/thanksgiving-truman-and-turkey-heres-how-americans-almost-had-a-turkey-free-holiday/520-0cff3184-bdc5-47c6-b105-f1ba56567d4e | url-status=live }} This was a part of President Truman's Citizen's Food Committee task force, designed to ration food consumption in the United States in hopes to provide more foreign food assistance to Europe post World War II. Part of the campaign included an "Egg-less & Poultry-less Thursday", which began in October 1947, and with Thanksgiving Day always occurring on a Thursday, there was a considerable backlash among American consumers against this. Truman was true to his word, and no pumpkin pie was served at the White House for Thanksgiving in 1947.{{cite web | title=Turkey became the Thanksgiving tradition | website=HHJ Online | date=22 November 2017 | url=https://hhjonline.com/turkey-became-the-thanksgiving-tradition-p10601-95.htm | access-date=March 31, 2022 | archive-date=April 7, 2023 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407070925/https://hhjonline.com/turkey-became-the-thanksgiving-tradition-p10601-95.htm | url-status=live }}

In popular culture

=Poetry=

Lydia Maria Child's Thanksgiving poem "Over the River and Through the Wood" (1844) references pumpkin pie in one of its verses: "Hurrah for the fun! Is the pudding done? / Hurrah for the pumpkin pie!"
Mathew Franklin Whittier, signing as "A Yankee," wrote in his poem "Song of the Pumpkin" (1846):The Boston "Chronotype," Oct. 1, 1846 edition

{{blockquote|Ah! on Thanksday, when from East and from West,

From North and from South comes the pilgrim and guest;

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored;

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before;

What moistens the lip and what brightens the eye,

What calls back the past, like the rich Pumpkin pie?}}

=Songs=

Oscar Ferdinand Telgmann and George Frederick Cameron wrote the song "Farewell O Fragrant Pumpkin Pie" in the opera Leo, the Royal Cadet (1889):{{cite web|url=https://archive.org/details/cihm_06551 |title=Leo, the Royal cadet [microform]: Cameron, George Frederick, 1854-1885: Free Download & Streaming: Internet Archive |date=March 10, 2001 |access-date=August 19, 2010|location=Kingston, Ontario|publisher=s.n. }}

{{blockquote|

Farewell, O fragrant pumpkin pie!

Dyspeptic pork, adieu!

Though to the college halls I hie.

On field of battle though I die, my latest sob, my latest sigh

shall wafted be to you!

And thou, O doughnut rare and rich and fried divinely brown!

Thy form shall fill a noble niche in memory's chamber whilst I pitch

my tent beside the river which rolls on through Kingston town.

And my Love—my little Nell,

the apple of my eye to thee how can I say farewell?

I love thee more than I can tell;

I love thee more than anything—but—pie!}}

The Christmas-themed song "There's No Place Like Home for the Holidays" makes a reference to homemade pumpkin pie being looked forward to by a man returning to his family's home in Pennsylvania.
The popular Christmas song "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree" contains the lyric, "Later we'll have some pumpkin pie/And we'll do some caroling".
"Sleigh Ride", another popular Christmas song, also mentions sitting around a fire after being out in the snow and eating pumpkin pie.

Records

The world's largest pumpkin pie was made in New Bremen, Ohio, at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest on September 25, 2010.{{cite web|title=2010 World Record Pumpkin Pie|url=http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/pumpkinpierecord.htm|publisher=Pumpkin Nook|access-date=January 5, 2011|archive-date=October 9, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201009184814/http://www.pumpkinnook.com/giants/pumpkinpierecord.htm|url-status=live}}{{Cite web |title=Largest pie, pumpkin |url=https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-pie-pumpkin |access-date=2022-04-02 |website=Guinness World Records |language=en-gb |archive-date=2022-03-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220308103909/https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/largest-pie-pumpkin |url-status=live }} The pie consisted of {{convert|1212|lb|kg|abbr=off}} of canned pumpkin, {{convert|109|USgal|L|abbr=off}} of evaporated milk, 2,796 eggs, {{convert|7|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of salt, {{convert|14+1/2|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of cinnamon, and {{convert|525|lb|kg|abbr=on}} of sugar. The final pie weighed {{convert|3,699|lb|kg|abbr=on}} and measured {{convert|20|ft|m|0|abbr=on}} in diameter.

Image gallery

File:Pumpkin Pie from a *real* pumpkin, November 2007.jpg|A homemade pumpkin pie prepared using fresh pumpkin

File:2019-02-17 21 16 11 Half of a pumpkin pie in the Franklin Farm section of Oak Hill, Fairfax County, Virginia.jpg|Cross-section view of a commercially prepared pumpkin pie

File:One-pie pumpkin.jpg|A can of pureed pumpkin, typically used as the main ingredient in the pie filling