Speaker 1: Welcome to Brainstuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey Brainstuff,
Speaker 1: Lauren bog Obam here for many winter holidays in the
Speaker 1: United States aren't complete without a pumpkin pie. And honestly,
Speaker 1: where would we be without the pie inspired pumpkin spice lattes.
Speaker 1: But think about this, pumpkin pie is a pie filled
Speaker 1: with squash. Who in the world decided to fill a
Speaker 1: pie with a squash? The history of how pumpkin pie
Speaker 1: became so popular is a story that smashes together medieval traditions,
Speaker 1: indigenous food from Africa and the America's and the most
Speaker 1: sought after goods of ancient trade routes through Asia and
Speaker 1: the Middle East. But first, let's start simply with the pie,
Speaker 1: which was more popular during the Middle Ages in Europe
Speaker 1: than it is in the US today, according to Ken Albila,
Speaker 1: a professor of history at the University of the Pacific
Speaker 1: in Stockton, California. He's also the author of more than
Speaker 1: twenty five books about food and food history, including food
Speaker 1: in early modern Europe. He told this via email. There
Speaker 1: were a lot of pies, fruits, meat, fish, vegetables in
Speaker 1: medieval times. Pies looked much different than the ones we
Speaker 1: know today, and people didn't eat the crusts. That's because
Speaker 1: pie crusts at the time were made of a dough
Speaker 1: that was thick, bland, and stiff, not flaky or buttery,
Speaker 1: and we're most often single use cooking and serving vessels.
Speaker 1: They were made free form, without pie dishes or plates,
Speaker 1: so they stood higher and had to be harder than
Speaker 1: what we're used to seeing in pies today. Albala said
Speaker 1: people poured hot, gelatinous gravy into a hole at the
Speaker 1: top to keep air out, and often, but I don't
Speaker 1: think always, they broke open the pie and scooped out
Speaker 1: the contents, throwing away the crust. Some historical evidence shows
Speaker 1: that those crusts may have been soaked and eaten by
Speaker 1: servants or the poor. But all that ended a round
Speaker 1: the fourteen to fifteen hundreds, when people figured out how
Speaker 1: to or perhaps could more widely afford, to make crusts
Speaker 1: more tender. When European colonists arrived in North America, eating
Speaker 1: pie crust became normal and a very important part of life.
Speaker 1: A food was scarce, especially during winters, and eating pie
Speaker 1: crust became a great way to stretch small amounts of
Speaker 1: food to feed hungry people. By the sixteen hundreds, eating
Speaker 1: a slice was the way to savor pie. As for
Speaker 1: the filling. In medieval Europe, there was no pumpkin. Instead,
Speaker 1: Europeans made pies with other gourds, favoring varieties that originated
Speaker 1: in Africa. Europeans only got their first taste of pumpkins
Speaker 1: when explorers, colonizers, and slave traders brought pumpkins back from
Speaker 1: their trips to the Americas. While it took years for
Speaker 1: Europeans to warm up to some other foods from the Americas,
Speaker 1: and things like potatoes and tomatoes were considered poisonous, they
Speaker 1: took to pumpkins quickly because they were similar to the
Speaker 1: gourds that they were already familiar with. But Wheater Albala said,
Speaker 1: pumpkin pie, as we know it is fundamentally medieval. Pumpkin
Speaker 1: spice is a classic medieval combination. And yes, let's talk
Speaker 1: about the spice combination that we today associate with autumn
Speaker 1: desserts and coffee shops. In the Middle Ages, it wasn't
Speaker 1: just used for sweet pies. A similar spice combination was
Speaker 1: used in everything that folks could afford to during that
Speaker 1: time period. Not only did it taste good, But those
Speaker 1: same spices were also considered a status symbol that wealthy
Speaker 1: people used to flaunt their riches. Sugar was rare too,
Speaker 1: so if you could offer guests a feast featuring spices, sugar,
Speaker 1: and vegetables from the New World, you were rolling. Albala said,
Speaker 1: you find the cinnamon, clove, ginger, nutmeg combo everywhere up
Speaker 1: into the sixteenth century. By then they were often combined
Speaker 1: with sugar too. There are standard and poodare for combinations
Speaker 1: that are spicier, with pepper, sometimes grains of paradise. But
Speaker 1: what we think of as pumpkin spice goes into most
Speaker 1: recipes until French haw cuisine in the seventeenth century begins
Speaker 1: to banish them to the end of the meal along
Speaker 1: with sweets. Ultimately, by the eighteenth century, the British lost
Speaker 1: their love for pumpkin pie and began to negatively associate
Speaker 1: pumpkins with Native Americans. They instead preferred apple, pear and
Speaker 1: quince pies, which they considered more sophisticated. But at the
Speaker 1: same time, conists in America began to make pumpkin pie
Speaker 1: on their own. Consider the book American Cookery by Amelia Simmons.
Speaker 1: It's considered by food historians to be a kind of
Speaker 1: culinary declaration of independence from England. It's the first cookbook
Speaker 1: ever written by an American featuring ingredients indigenous to America
Speaker 1: and published in America. Simmons recipe for pumpkin pie goes
Speaker 1: one court stewed and strained pumpkin, three pints cream, nine
Speaker 1: beaten eggs, sugar, mace, nutmeg, and ginger, laid into paste
Speaker 1: numbers seven or three and with a doe, spur cross
Speaker 1: and checker it and baked in dishes three quarters of
Speaker 1: an hour. Simmons recipe is very close to what we
Speaker 1: recognize today as traditional pumpkin pie, with one exception. Her
Speaker 1: recipe calls for that top crust. By the early eighteen hundreds, though,
Speaker 1: pumpkin pie became a single crust pie and a mainstay
Speaker 1: of American cuisine and Thanksgiving feasts. By the way, if
Speaker 1: you prefer your pie in the morning, perhaps after a
Speaker 1: Thanksgiving feast with a cup of coffee, you're upholding another
Speaker 1: American tradition. Up until the late nineteenth century, people regularly
Speaker 1: ate breakfast pie, including flavors like pumpkin and apple. Breakfast
Speaker 1: pie was on hotel and restaurant menus and held a
Speaker 1: regular spot on the breakfast menus in the homes of
Speaker 1: people like Ralph Waldo Emerson and Oliver Wendell homes. Today's
Speaker 1: episode was written by Shan Chavis and produced by Tyler Clang.
Speaker 1: For more in this and lots of other tasty tip
Speaker 1: fix visit how stuff works dot com. Brain Stuff is
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