Thanksgiving will soon be here, and the feast whether vegan, gluten free, or traditional probably will include the perennial dessert favorite: Pumpkin Pie.

Pumpkins and their various preparations have been part of the American diet since the first English colonists arrived in New England. One of the earliest recipes for a pumpkin-based dessert appeared in The French Cook, published in England in 1653. The author’s recipe for Tourte of Pumpkin is deceptively simple:

Boile [sic] it with good milk, pass it through a straining pan very thick, and mix it with sugar, butter, a little salt and, if you will, a few stamped almonds; let all be very thin. Put it in your sheet of paste [pie crust?]; bake it. After it is baked, besprinkle it with sugar and serve.

The writer leaves out the part about stewing the pumpkin all day before extracting the pulp.

In 1796 Amelia Simons published American Cookery, the first cookbook published in America. Simons offered several pumpkin pie recipes.

No 1. One quart stewed and strained, 3 pints cream, 9 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg and ginger, laid into a paste [pie crust] No. 7 or 3, and with a dough spur, cross and checker it, and baked in dishes three quarters of an hour.

Paste Recipe No. 3:
To any quantity of flour, rub in 3/4ths of its weight in butter (12 eggs to a peck). Rub in 1/3 or 1/2, and roll in the rest. Put in deep pie pan

During the 19th century, pumpkin pie transitioned into an iconic dessert that should be on all Thanksgiving dinner tables. The addition was partly due to Northwood, a novel by Sarah Josepha Hale published in 1827, that listed pumpkin pie as part of a traditional Thanksgiving meal.

A poem published in the Massachusetts Ploughman and New England Journal of Agriculture in 1850 further declared:

But here beneath bright Freedom’s sky
A land that valor won,
We’ll sing our famous Pumpkin Pie,
From morn till setting sun!

Enter Libby’s

In the late 19th century Libby McNeil Libby was a canned meat company, particularly known from its canned corned beef. In 1906 Libby’s also produced condensed and evaporated milk. In 1912 Libby’s published its first pumpkin pie recipe to sell more evaporated milk.

“Pumpkin Pie: 1 ½ cups cooked and strained pumpkin, 2 eggs, ¾ cup sugar, ¼ cup molasses, ½ tablespoonful cinnamon, ½ tablespoonful ginger, 1/8 teaspoonful salt, 1 cup (1/2 can) Libby’s Evaporated Milk, with 1 cupful water. Mix pumpkin, molasses, sugar and spices together. Add the mixed milk and water, then add the eggs thoroughly beaten. Mix well and put into deep pie tins lined with pastry. Bake 45 minutes in a moderate oven.”

In 1929 Libby’s acquired Dickinson & Co. which specialized in canning peas, corn, and squash. Over time, the demand for canned peas and corn declined, but Libby’s popularized canned pumpkin with the pie recipe on the back of the can.

Today Libby’s produces 85 per cent of canned pumpkin in the United States. During the 1950s Libby’s introduced the pie recipe still found on the back of the can. In 2019, Libby’s added a second recipe to the label which added sweetened condensed milk and reduced the amount of sugar so the pie filling would be easier to mix.

The World’s Largest Pumpkin Pie

Every year there are contests for growing the largest pumpkin, and also for baking the largest pumpkin pie. In 2010 the Guinness Book of World Records recorded that the pie baked at the New Bremen Pumpkinfest held the title. As far as I know the title still holds.

The massive dessert used 1,212 pounds of canned pumpkin; 109 gallons of evaporated milk; 2,796 eggs; 7 pounds of salt; 14-1/2 pounds of cinnamon, and 525 pounds of sugar. The pie crust consisted of 440 sheets of dough pressed into a pie pan produced by Arctect Fabricating, a welding company. The pie was baked in a special oven for 13 hours. When it was finished, the completed pie weighed 3,699 pounds, was 20 feet in diameter, and produced 5,000 pieces of pie.

A picture of the massive pie is here

If you want to see the pie emerge from its special oven, here it is.

? ? ? ? ?

Sandra’s Books: Sea Tigers & Merchants. Ambition, Arrogance & Pride. Saxon Heroines. Two Coins. Rama’s Labyrinth.

Illustrations & A Few Sources

Thanksgiving Postcard, 1910; American Cookery cover; Libby’s Cooked Corn Beef ad; Pumpkin Pie with Libby’s can. Ellen Terrell. “A Brief History of Pumpkin Pie in America.” Library of Congress Blogs. Nov. 20, 2017. Sarah Wassberg. “Secret Behind Libby’s Original Pumpkin Pie Recipe.” Food History Blog. Nov. 25, 2020.

The post Hooray For The Pumpkin Pie first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

Every season has its own special foods, and two of the foods most associated with fall are apples and pumpkins. Both are harvested between late August and the end of October, and both have associations with fall in the northern hemisphere. As the nights become longer and the weather chillier, a mug of hot apple cider or a pumpkin spice latte is a favorite seasonal beverage associated with cozy fires and soothing scents.

Apples aren’t just used for food and drink. They are also the main feature in a popular game known as Bobbing for Apples. The bobbing can be snatching the apple from a bucket of water or pulling it off a string hanging on a line. The game’s history reaches back to Samhain, a Gaelic festival that marked the end of the harvest season. 

Today we think bobbing for apples is a game that hopefully will have a better prize for the winner than a wet face and a mouth full of apple. Traditionally, the game was far more “serious” — the winner would be the next person to marry.

A young woman bobbed her head into the water in an attempt to bite the apple with her male suitor’s name on it. If she bit into the correct apple on her first attempt, the couple was fated for love. If she succeeded on her second attempt, the young man would pursue her. If she required a third effort, romance was unlikely.

I don’t know how much apple bobbing goes on today, but hot apple cider remains popular. Plain apple cider requires mashing or grinding the applies to the consistency of apple sauce and then pressing them. If the resulting cider isn’t consumed within two weeks it is likely to ferment.

Homemade Hot Apple Cider

If you’re looking for a cozy fragrance in your kitchen and you have time to spare, you could make hot apple cider. The recipe isn’t complicated.

Quarter 6-10 apples, place them in a large pot, and cover them with water.

Wrap 4 tablespoons of cinnamon and 4 tablespoons of allspice in cheesecloth.

Place the cheesecloth wrapped spices and 1/2-1 cup sugar in the pot with the applies.

Boil the mixture for 1 hour, and simmer it for another 2 hours.

Remove the spice cheesecloth.

Mash the apples, and strain them into another container.

Serve warm in a mug and add a stick of cinnamon or a few cloves.

Pumpkin Delights

PUMPKIN SPICE

Pumpkin spices have become a primary fragrance associated with fall.

What we call Pumpkin Spice is a mixture of 3 tablespoons of ground cinnamon; 2 teaspoons of ground ginger; 2 teaspoons of ground nutmeg; 1-1/2 teaspoons of ground allspice, and 1-1/2 teaspoons of ground cloves. In 1934 McCormick & Company introduced Pumpkin Pie Spice as a pre-blended mix.

PUMPKIN SPICE LATTES

Pumpkin Spice Lattes are a new “tradition.” Starbucks introduced the first Pumpkin Spice Latte in 2003. In 2015 the company added real pumpkin puree made from little kabocha pumpkins to the formula. For many happy coffee drinkers, fall begins when Pumpkin Spice Lattes go on sale.

PUMPKIN PIE – OH, MY!

The most famous use of pumpkins is in pumpkin pie. It’s the only dessert I bake from scratch. The history of pumpkin pie is worth a moment’s exploration. Contrary to what you might expect, the Pilgrims did not introduce what we think of as pumpkin pie to the world. Instead, they created a soup, or stew, that included milk, honey and spices. It was served inside the pumpkin shell and baked under hot ashes. Colonists also stewed pumpkins to produce ale.

The word pumpkin comes from the Greek word for a large melon: peon.
When the fruit arrived in France, it was dubbed pompion. When it arrived in Tudor England, the word changed to pompon.

One of the earliest recipes for pumpkin pie is found in Hannah Woolley’s The Gentlewoman’s Companion, published in 1675. It’s quite different from the custard we eat now. See what you think.

Ingredients:
1 pound pumpkin
Thyme, rosemary, marjoram
Cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, cloves

10 eggs
Sugar to taste
Apples
Currants
Sweet butter
Optional – white wine or verjuice
Optional – 6 egg yolks

Instructions:
Slice a pound of pumpkin.

Take beaten cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and a few cloves, and add them to ten eggs.

Add a handful of thyme, a little rosemary, and sweet marjoram stripped off the stalks – chop them all.

Beat everything together with as much sugar as you feel sufficient.

Fry everything like a pancake, then remove and let stand until cold.

Slice the apples into layers, and layer them on the fried pumpkin pancake.

Add currants on top of the apples.

Add a lot of sweet butter before closing it up

(Optionally) Make a caudle [liquid mixture] of white wine or verjuice and 6 yolks to stir into the pie before it sets up

EASY LIBBY’S PUMPKIN PIE

The first recipe for Libby’s pumpkin pie appeared on the back of a Libby’s pumpkin puree can in 1929. The present recipe came out, still on the back of the can, during the 1950s. Since its first appearance, Libby’s has been the ‘gold standard’ for pumpkin pie. Thank goodness we don’t have to mash the pumpkin pulp.

Ingredients

1 9-inch pie crust

3/4 cup of sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp salt

2 large eggs

1 15-oz. can of Libby’s pure pumpkin

1 12-fluid oz. can of evaporated milk

Directions

Combine sugar, cinnamon, salt, ginger, cloves in small bowl

Beat eggs lightly in large bowl

Stir in pumpkin and sugar-spice mixture

Gradually stirred in evaporated milk

pour into pie shell

Bake in oven preheated to 425 degrees for 15 minutes

Reduce heat to 350 degrees. Bake about 40-50 minutes until inserted knife comes out clean. Cool at room temperature.

?

As we shift into fall, remember those famous words by “Unknown,”

Let’s pumpkin spice up a bit. ?

? ? ?

Illustrations:

Clancy’s Pumpkin Patch by Willis Lam.

Apple Bobbing by Caleb Zahnd.

Bob Apple by Frederick Morgan.

Hot Apple Cider by NatalieMaynor

Container of Pumpkin Spice by Stephen Witherden

Grand Iced Pumpkin Latte by JimmyStardust

Gefüllter Hokkaidokürbis.

Hannah Woolley. The Gentlewoman’s Companion. Wellcome Images.

Sliced pumpkin by Rod Waddington.

Pumpkin Pie.

“Libby’s Famous Pumpkin Pie.” All Recipes. Apr. 4,2023.

Nina Friend. “The Surprising History of Pumpkin Spice.” Food & Wine. Aug. 24, 2021.

Priya Krishna. “Brief & Buttery History of Libby’s Pumpkin Pie Recipe.” bon appetite. Nov. 20, 2019.

Gerard Paul. “History of Pumpkin Pie.” Many Eats. Dec. 1, 2020.

The post Apples & Pumpkins: The Fruits of Fall first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.

There are many ways we know the season of Autumn has begun. The calendar informs us the official date is September 22. People whose school days ended sometime in the last century associate Autumn with the beginning of school. There’s the turning of the leaves, the nights drawing in, and the nip in the air. But for most of us, Autumn begins in late August when our favorite barista offers us a Pumpkin Spice Latte, available for a limited time only.

Before delving into the exciting world of pumpkin spices, I must note that Starbucks released its exotic coffee blend in 2003. At the time, naysayers said no one would purchase spiced coffee. In fact, consumers flocked to buy the coffee blended with caramel, spices, and lots of sugar. Forbes reported that in 2018, the “pumpkin spice complex” had a combined market value of over $600 million.

The Spices of Fall

There’s nothing inherently special about the ‘pumpkin spice’ blend. You can assemble it at home with 18 parts ground cinnamon, 4 parts ground nutmeg, 4 parts ground ginger, 3 parts ground cloves, and 3 parts ground allspice. How much is a “part”? As much as you like. It could be a teaspoon or a tablespoon or more or less. Mix the parts together, and you have your own pumpkin spice blend. Sometimes people add ground cloves and or mace to taste.

A Little Spice History

In the 15th Century, the search for spices influenced European efforts to sail around the world. Prior to that, spices came into Europe via trade routes established by the Muslim World. The resulting product was very expensive. One source reveals that during the 14^th century, a pound of nutmeg had the same value as 7 fattened oxen. And nutmeg could be found only in the Banda Islands, later called the Spice Islands, a part of Indonesia.

So, if a nation or company could cut out the middle man and sail directly to the source, it would be extremely wealthy. In the early 17^th Century, the Dutch East India Company took exclusive control of the region, and used the newly available spices to create speculassakruiden, a blend of cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, coriander seeds, aniseed, white pepper, ginger, and cardamom — a clear predecessor of pumpkin spice.

Next, The Pumpkin

That same 17^th Century brought the first English settlers to America where they reluctantly came to appreciate local foods, particularly the prolific pumpkin. They could consume the mostly tasteless vegetable in soups and stews. They could roast it and bake it. Native Americans added chili peppers for flavor. The colonists added sugar and spice. 

While the settlers filled their stomachs with the anti-oxident that is pumpkin, their English cousins laughed at them for eating the squash and called them ‘pumpkin-blasted brains’ for choosing frontier America over civilized England.

Lacking what we think of as baking equipment, the early settlors came up with what now seems a unique way to make pumpkin pie by hollowing out the pumpkin, filling the shell with a mix of milk, honey and spices to make a custard, and then roasting the filled pumpkin in hot ashes. If you want to try this method, you can find a modern recipe here.

During the 19^th Century pumpkin pie took on modern characteristics as American bakers made pumpkin pie with whatever spices they had on hand. Most often, these included cinnamon. But, as anyone who has ever carved a pumpkin knows, it takes a lot of work to pulp a pumpkin.

Pumpkin Spice Blend is Born

Then, in 1929, Libby’s came out with the first canned pumpkin pulp, the same product many of us still use for baking pumpkin based foods.

Five years later, in 1934, McCormick, then the largest purveyor of spices, came out with the first “Pumpkin Spice Mix,” and pumpkin baked goods became the most popular desserts of the season.

In 1936, the Washington Post published “Spice Cake of Pumpkin Newest Dish: Delicacy Tempting to All Appetites and Easy to Prepare. Ideal Dessert for Family Dinner, Healthful for Children.” The recipe shown below had no actual pumpkin pulp, but it did feature pumpkin spices.*

In 1950 Libby’s 100% Pure Pumpkin printed a classic pumpkin pie recipe that has become a favorite across generations on the side of its can.

Pumpkin Spice Is In Almost Everything

From its humble beginnings as a spice mixture for bakers, pumpkin spice now infuses countless products. Among them: Bailey’s Pumpkin Spice Liqueur; Burt’s Bees Pumpkin Spice Lip Balm; Captain Morgan Jack-O’Blast Pumpkin Spice Rum in a pumpkin shaped bottle; Greenies Pumpkin Spice Dental Dog Treats; Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day Multi-Surface Everyday Cleaner, Pumpkin Scent; and Limited Edition Pumpkin Spice Spam. In short, this is the time of year when we are surrounded by the scent and flavors of pumpkin spice.

* 1936 Recipe for Pumpkin Spice Cake The baker can use the pumpkin spice mix or mix her own spices.Cream 1/2 cup shortening well and add 1-1/2 cups brown sugar. Mix until light and fluffy. Add 4 egg yolks, beaten until thick. Sift 3 cups of cake flour once before measuring. Add 4 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp cloves, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp nutmeg. Sift all together three times. Add flour mixture alternating with 1 cup milk. Beat well after each addition. Bake in 350 degree oven.

? ? ?

Illustrations

Spice Box by Testmaskara

Starbucks Grande Iced Pumpkin Spice Latte by JimmyStardust.

Spice Bazaar by Christophe Schindler.

Map of the Spice Islands by Blaeu, 1630.

Pumpkins in Geneseo NY. Attribution: Benjamin D. Esham / Wikimedia Commons.

McCormick Pumpkin Pie Spice by Stephen Witherden.

Tiny Dutch Kitchen

SouffleBombay

1936 Spice Cake Recipe from the Honolulu Advertiser

Shannon Dwyer. “The 20+ Coolest Pumpkin Spice Products to Try This Fall.” The Real Deal. Oct 4, 2021.

Dań Nosowicz. “The Fascinating Journey of How Pumpkin Spice Found Its Way Into Our Lattes.” Better Homes & Gardens. Aug. 17, 2020.

Audrey Stanton. “The History of Pumpkin Spice.” The Good Trade.

The post Pumpkin Spice & All Things Nice first appeared on Sandra Wagner-Wright.