By Ferdinand Bernhard Vietz. 1804 Biodiversity Heritage Library

SO MUCH has changed — but not pumpkin pie. The basic recipe, which is essentially pudding in a crust, was used by colonists in Early America. It is very easy to make. There are literally thousands of recipes online, most of them following the basic formula. (I prefer to bake the crust partially before filling and baking again.) The Library of Congress has a history by Ellen Terrell.

And here’s an ode to pumpkin pie by the fiery abolitionist John Greenleaf Whittier, who writes,

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?

Oh, fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,
When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!
When wild, ugly faces we carved in its skin,
Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!
When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,
Our chair a broad pumpkin,—our lantern the moon,
Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,
In a pumpkin-shell coach, with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better
E’er smoked from an oven or circled a platter!
Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,
Brighter eyes never watched o’er its baking, than thine!
And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,
Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,
That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,
And the fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,
And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky
Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

— Comments —

Hurricane Betsy writes:

Thanks for your entry on pumpkin pie and that poem and the crust article, too.   However, I don’t see any reference to the Dickinson Pumpkin in the link, though maybe I missed it.  It is the variety used by Libby’s.  Maybe most people can’t get excited about the story, but growers, farmers & gardeners sure do. It is a part of America’s food history.

 Legend in the Dickinson family is that the pie recipe on the back of the Libby Pumpkin can came from his [Richard Dickinson’s] grandmother.  One day his grandfather, who had remained a manager of the plant after its purchase by Libby’s, came home from work and said to his wife Hazel, “We need a pie recipe for Libby’s.”  As the story goes, she baked lots and lots of different recipes, some better than others, which the entire family had to eat.  At some point perfection was reached and the recipe became part of canned pumpkin history.  The Libby or Dickinson pie recipe has been on the Libby’s label continuously since 1950.  [And they say women don’t “work” or contribute to the economy if they aren’t trudging off to a factory or office every day.]

(The above info was extracted almost word for word from “The Dickinson” by Jamie Jackson published in The Whole Seed Catalog from Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds. There’s much more, though!)

I can’t bring myself to use the canned stuff, tasty though it is.  I find that my own winter squashes give an even richer flavour.  Not criticizing anyone who does use canned, though.  Not everyone has a garden or farm.

I have a hard time getting a truly perfect crust.  With or without the fraisage technique.

That sure is a nice painting Just Moved by Henry Mosler.  They don’t seem awfully well to do, but they have a look of contentment in spite of the mess.

Laura writes:

Thank you. That’s interesting. But isn’t the Libby recipe pretty much what people had been doing for many years before? That article I cited above, the one from the Library of Congress, mentions a similar recipe that the colonists made.

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