Deconstructing Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving may well be the most American of all holidays, nearly universally celebrated within the United States. It features American values like family and gratitude. While families might vary in whether the protein for their Thanksgiving dinner is a turkey or a tofu-nut loaf, most dessert tables are going to feature a pumpkin pie. If pumpkin pie is the unifying feature of Thanksgiving dinners across the nation, it is worth asking, "Just how American is pumpkin pie?"

Let's deconstruct a pumpkin pie recipe to answer that question. The plethora of contemporary pumpkin pie recipes all share a pumpkin and spice custard filling with a crust. They all appear to have roots in a "Pompkin Pudding" recipe in Amelia Simmons' 1796 book, American Cookery.

The universal ingredient is pumpkin. But what is a pumpkin, and is it truly American? Pumpkin is the fruit of certain members of the viny squash family (a big family with familiar members such as cucumbers, melons, and gourds). A pumpkin can come from one of three different species: Cucurbita pepo (classic Jack O' Lanterns as well as most summer squashes like zucchinis and winter squashes like acorn), Cucurbita moschata (includes butternut squash and is the primary source of commercial pumpkin puree), and Cucurbita maxima (also Hubbard and Turban squashes). All of these species are among the oldest domesticated crops, going back ten thousand years or more to their origins. Cucurbita pepo was domesticated in North America, in what is now the American Southwest and northern Mexico. The others hail from South America. By the time that the Pilgrims had arrived, domesticated C. pepo, including its pumpkin variants, had long expanded its range throughout temperate North America. So far, so good. Pumpkin has (North and South) American roots.

The centerpiece of the pumpkin pie recipe is pumpkin, either from scratch, skinned, seeded, cooked, and mashed - or you do as I do, go get a can of pumpkin puree. Creating the custard involves bringing the smashed pumpkin together with the typical components of a sweet custard base, evaporated milk, eggs, and brown sugar as well as the magical ingredient that gives the iconic "pumpkin" flavor to pumpkin pie, pumpkin spice. How American are these ingredients?

The custard base has various origins. If we assume that milk is from cows, then consider that cattle have Old World origins. Specifically, cattle were domesticated in the Near East about ten thousand years ago and spread quickly to Europe and elsewhere. In the unlikely case that the milk is from sheep or goats, these too have Old World ancestors.

Likewise, eggs are from chickens. And chickens trace their roots to the wild junglefowl that still inhabit South East Asia. They evolved around eight thousand years ago.

Brown sugar is a mix of purified cane sugar to which a small amount of molasses is added. The molasses itself is a byproduct of the sugar purification process. Sugar cane is a relative newcomer, domesticated by the people of Papua New Guinea roughly six thousand years ago.

On to the secret sauce! Pumpkin spice flavor, contrary to some popular assumptions, is not the flavor of pumpkin, which, on its own, tastes like the squash that it is. The ingredients to create "Pumpkin spice" flavor may vary by recipe, but are a mix of two to five different spices: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, clove, and allspice. Cinnamon and ginger are almost always present.

Those spices, except allspice, were among the precious flavors that drove the Spice Trade that arose during the Middle Ages and dominated the Renaissance, inspiring the likes of Vasco da Gama and Christopher Columbus to seek an efficient and cheap route to the Orient. Each of the spices has a different story.

Cinnamon comes from the inner bark of the tree Cinnamomum verum ("true cinnamon") which is native to Sri Lanka (formerly known as "Ceylon"). It is a member of the laurel family and thus a distant relative of the avocado. Close Cinnamon relatives known as cassia have a similar but harsher flavor than true cinnamon and are sometimes used as cinnamon substitutes.

Ginger is created from the underground stem (rhizome) of a plant (Zingiber officinale) that is vaguely like a short banana plant. The stems are what you buy in the grocery store when you need fresh ginger. The ginger family includes other species that are sources of well-known spices such as turmeric and cardamom. Details of ginger's origin and domestication are poorly known. The available evidence suggests somewhere in maritime Southeast Asia.

Nutmeg is ground from the seed of the tree Myristica fragrans. The seed covering (aril) of the same species is used to make the spice known as "mace". Myristica fragrans is native to islands that are now part of the Indonesian province of Maluku.

The tree that produces clove spice is native to the same region as nutmeg. So called "cloves" are the dried flower buds of the tree Syzygium aromaticum. This species is a member of the myrtle family that you would probably know best from its members eucalyptus and guava. The family also includes allspice.

Allspice is the final spice that can contribute to pumpkin spice flavor. Allspice is NOT, despite its name, a combination of spices. The ground spice is processed from the dried immature fruits of the tree Pimenta dioica. In contrast to the other pumpkin pie spices, allspice trees are native to the New World, specifically southern Mexico, Central America, and the West Indies.

What a geographic mix!

But what's that? You're right!

Don't forget the crust.

The standard pumpkin pie crust is a simple combination of flour, butter, sugar, water, and salt. Water and salt are ubiquitous. We've already examined the origin of cane sugar (Papua New Guinea). Butter is typically from cow's milk, and we've covered cattle already (Near East).

Unless gluten-free, bread wheat flour is used for pumpkin pie crust. Wheat, like sugar cane, is a grass family plant. Many (but not all) grains are members of this family: barley, corn, millet, oats, rice, sorghum, etc. Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum) and its close relative, pasta wheat (Triticum durum), were domesticated ca. nine thousand years ago in the Near East.

Now our recipe is complete. Just how American is pumpkin pie? Our deconstruction of pumpkin pie reveals that this Thanksgiving staple owes its existence to plants and animals from throughout the world. A pumpkin pie is a veritable geographic melting pot.

And so is America.