WEBVTT - Where Did Pumpkin Pie Come From? 0:00:01.920 --> 0:00:06.960 Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff, 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.040 Lauren bog Obam here for many winter holidays in the 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:15.560 United States aren't complete without a pumpkin pie. And honestly, 0:00:15.640 --> 0:00:19.000 where would we be without the pie inspired pumpkin spice lattes. 0:00:19.880 --> 0:00:24.400 But think about this, pumpkin pie is a pie filled 0:00:24.520 --> 0:00:27.680 with squash. Who in the world decided to fill a 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.240 pie with a squash? The history of how pumpkin pie 0:00:32.280 --> 0:00:36.560 became so popular is a story that smashes together medieval traditions, 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.199 indigenous food from Africa and the America's and the most 0:00:40.280 --> 0:00:43.159 sought after goods of ancient trade routes through Asia and 0:00:43.240 --> 0:00:48.520 the Middle East. But first, let's start simply with the pie, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:51.120 which was more popular during the Middle Ages in Europe 0:00:51.120 --> 0:00:53.920 than it is in the US today, according to Ken Albila, 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:56.400 a professor of history at the University of the Pacific 0:00:56.400 --> 0:00:59.720 in Stockton, California. He's also the author of more than 0:00:59.720 --> 0:01:03.160 twenty five books about food and food history, including food 0:01:03.200 --> 0:01:07.200 in early modern Europe. He told this via email. There 0:01:07.240 --> 0:01:12.480 were a lot of pies, fruits, meat, fish, vegetables in 0:01:12.560 --> 0:01:15.520 medieval times. Pies looked much different than the ones we 0:01:15.560 --> 0:01:19.440 know today, and people didn't eat the crusts. That's because 0:01:19.480 --> 0:01:21.600 pie crusts at the time were made of a dough 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:25.840 that was thick, bland, and stiff, not flaky or buttery, 0:01:25.959 --> 0:01:29.880 and we're most often single use cooking and serving vessels. 0:01:30.160 --> 0:01:33.200 They were made free form, without pie dishes or plates, 0:01:33.240 --> 0:01:35.600 so they stood higher and had to be harder than 0:01:35.600 --> 0:01:39.080 what we're used to seeing in pies today. Albala said 0:01:39.480 --> 0:01:42.560 people poured hot, gelatinous gravy into a hole at the 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:45.920 top to keep air out, and often, but I don't 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:48.720 think always, they broke open the pie and scooped out 0:01:48.760 --> 0:01:53.800 the contents, throwing away the crust. Some historical evidence shows 0:01:53.800 --> 0:01:56.760 that those crusts may have been soaked and eaten by 0:01:56.760 --> 0:02:00.240 servants or the poor. But all that ended a round 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:03.240 the fourteen to fifteen hundreds, when people figured out how 0:02:03.320 --> 0:02:07.120 to or perhaps could more widely afford, to make crusts 0:02:07.120 --> 0:02:11.520 more tender. When European colonists arrived in North America, eating 0:02:11.560 --> 0:02:14.560 pie crust became normal and a very important part of life. 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:18.320 A food was scarce, especially during winters, and eating pie 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.640 crust became a great way to stretch small amounts of 0:02:20.639 --> 0:02:24.560 food to feed hungry people. By the sixteen hundreds, eating 0:02:24.720 --> 0:02:29.320 a slice was the way to savor pie. As for 0:02:29.360 --> 0:02:33.360 the filling. In medieval Europe, there was no pumpkin. Instead, 0:02:33.440 --> 0:02:37.440 Europeans made pies with other gourds, favoring varieties that originated 0:02:37.480 --> 0:02:41.280 in Africa. Europeans only got their first taste of pumpkins 0:02:41.280 --> 0:02:45.280 when explorers, colonizers, and slave traders brought pumpkins back from 0:02:45.320 --> 0:02:48.720 their trips to the Americas. While it took years for 0:02:48.760 --> 0:02:51.360 Europeans to warm up to some other foods from the Americas, 0:02:51.520 --> 0:02:55.160 and things like potatoes and tomatoes were considered poisonous, they 0:02:55.200 --> 0:02:57.680 took to pumpkins quickly because they were similar to the 0:02:57.680 --> 0:03:02.520 gourds that they were already familiar with. But Wheater Albala said, 0:03:02.840 --> 0:03:06.320 pumpkin pie, as we know it is fundamentally medieval. Pumpkin 0:03:06.400 --> 0:03:11.959 spice is a classic medieval combination. And yes, let's talk 0:03:12.000 --> 0:03:15.440 about the spice combination that we today associate with autumn 0:03:15.600 --> 0:03:19.360 desserts and coffee shops. In the Middle Ages, it wasn't 0:03:19.440 --> 0:03:22.960 just used for sweet pies. A similar spice combination was 0:03:23.040 --> 0:03:25.639 used in everything that folks could afford to during that 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.880 time period. Not only did it taste good, But those 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:32.240 same spices were also considered a status symbol that wealthy 0:03:32.280 --> 0:03:36.360 people used to flaunt their riches. Sugar was rare too, 0:03:36.800 --> 0:03:40.640 so if you could offer guests a feast featuring spices, sugar, 0:03:40.960 --> 0:03:45.760 and vegetables from the New World, you were rolling. Albala said, 0:03:45.960 --> 0:03:50.040 you find the cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg combo everywhere up 0:03:50.080 --> 0:03:53.640 into the sixteenth century. By then they were often combined 0:03:53.680 --> 0:03:58.200 with sugar too. There are standard and poodare for combinations 0:03:58.240 --> 0:04:02.160 that are spicier, with pepper, sometimes grains of paradise. But 0:04:02.240 --> 0:04:04.960 what we think of as pumpkin spice goes into most 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:09.000 recipes until French haw cuisine in the seventeenth century begins 0:04:09.040 --> 0:04:11.280 to banish them to the end of the meal along 0:04:11.320 --> 0:04:16.359 with sweets. Ultimately, by the eighteenth century, the British lost 0:04:16.400 --> 0:04:19.560 their love for pumpkin pie and began to negatively associate 0:04:19.600 --> 0:04:23.760 pumpkins with Native Americans. They instead preferred apple, pear and 0:04:23.839 --> 0:04:28.760 quince pies, which they considered more sophisticated. But at the 0:04:28.800 --> 0:04:32.000 same time, conists in America began to make pumpkin pie 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:36.320 on their own. Consider the book American Cookery by Amelia Simmons. 0:04:36.760 --> 0:04:39.039 It's considered by food historians to be a kind of 0:04:39.120 --> 0:04:43.479 culinary declaration of independence from England. It's the first cookbook 0:04:43.480 --> 0:04:46.880 ever written by an American featuring ingredients indigenous to America 0:04:47.120 --> 0:04:51.440 and published in America. Simmons recipe for pumpkin pie goes 0:04:52.000 --> 0:04:55.640 one court stewed and strained pumpkin, three pints cream, nine 0:04:55.640 --> 0:04:59.560 beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg, and ginger, laid into paste 0:04:59.640 --> 0:05:03.040 numbers seven or three and with a doe, spur cross 0:05:03.120 --> 0:05:05.640 and checker it and baked in dishes three quarters of 0:05:05.680 --> 0:05:09.560 an hour. Simmons recipe is very close to what we 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:14.080 recognize today as traditional pumpkin pie, with one exception. Her 0:05:14.120 --> 0:05:18.560 recipe calls for that top crust. By the early eighteen hundreds, though, 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.520 pumpkin pie became a single crust pie and a mainstay 0:05:22.600 --> 0:05:27.160 of American cuisine and Thanksgiving feasts. By the way, if 0:05:27.160 --> 0:05:29.599 you prefer your pie in the morning, perhaps after a 0:05:29.600 --> 0:05:32.880 Thanksgiving feast with a cup of coffee, you're upholding another 0:05:32.960 --> 0:05:37.359 American tradition. Up until the late nineteenth century, people regularly 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:41.880 ate breakfast pie, including flavors like pumpkin and apple. Breakfast 0:05:41.880 --> 0:05:44.359 pie was on hotel and restaurant menus and held a 0:05:44.360 --> 0:05:46.560 regular spot on the breakfast menus in the homes of 0:05:46.600 --> 0:05:55.200 people like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell homes. Today's 0:05:55.200 --> 0:05:57.799 episode was written by Shan Chavis and produced by Tyler Clang. 0:05:58.240 --> 0:05:59.960 For more in this and lots of other tasty tip 0:06:00.040 --> 0:06:02.840 fix visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is 0:06:02.880 --> 0:06:05.240 production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts in my 0:06:05.279 --> 0:06:08.080 heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, 0:06:08.160 --> 0:06:10.000 or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.