Carnation's famous pumpkin pie: The traditional Thanksgiving dessert recipe, step-by-step with pictures - Click Americana (2024)

FAQs

How was pumpkin pie made? ›

Early American settlers of the Plymouth Colony in southern New England (1620-1692) may have made pumpkin pies, of sorts, without crusts. They stewed pumpkins or filled a hollowed out pumpkin shell with milk, honey and spices, and then baked it in hot ashes. Northeastern Native American tribes grew squash and pumpkins.

Perhaps the most popular Thanksgiving dessert, pumpkin pie is an easy favorite. Traditionally, pumpkin, either freshly roasted and pureed or canned, is mixed with a spice blend of nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves and mace.

Both the Pilgrims and members of the Wampanoag tribe ate pumpkins and other squashes indigenous to New England—possibly even during the harvest festival—but the fledgling colony lacked the butter and wheat flour necessary for making pie crust. Moreover, settlers hadn't yet constructed an oven for baking.

By the early 18th century, pumpkin pie earned its spot at the Thanksgiving table as the New England holiday grew in popularity. Thanksgiving as a holiday gave thanks for a bountiful autumn harvest with an annual feast. It became an important holiday in colonial New England – and pumpkin pie was a staple.

Pumpkin pie is most popular among residents in North Carolina, Michigan, Maryland, Wisconsin, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Mississippi, and South Dakota.

They are the same product. Both canned pumpkin puree and pie filling are useful, shelf-stable ingredients that can help speed up your kitchen prep time. Just remember that puree is unsweetened, while pie filling contains sugar and spices. This will help you choose the right pumpkin product for your recipes.

Ice cream is America's favorite dessert and is a key driver of the frozen food category.

While turkey is a staple on most Thanksgiving tables across America, Californians often opt for fresh, locally sourced turkeys or even try alternative proteins like roasted duck or quail. In addition to the main protein, Californians love to incorporate seasonal vegetables into their Thanksgiving feasts.

So, to the question “What did the Pilgrims eat for Thanksgiving,” the answer is both surprising and expected. Turkey (probably), venison, seafood, and all of the vegetables that they had planted and harvested that year—onions, carrots, beans, spinach, lettuce, and other greens.

President George Washington was the first to issue a proclamation for the holiday in 1789, designating Thursday, November 26 “for the People of the United States a day of public thanksgiving.” This marked the first national celebration of the holiday under the new Constitution.

What food was not eaten at the first Thanksgiving? ›

It is also worth noting what was not present at the first Thanksgiving feast. There were no cloudlike heaps of mashed potatoes, since white potatoes had not yet crossed over from South America. There was no gravy either, since the colonists didn't yet have mills to produce flour.

But according to the two only remaining historical records of the first Thanksgiving menu, that meal consisted of freshly killed deer, assorted wildfowl, cod, bass, and flint, and a native variety of corn harvested by the Native Americans, which was eaten as corn bread and porridge.

By the 1860s, cranberry sauce was so ingrained as an American dish, that General Ulysses S. Grant reportedly ordered that cranberries be served to soldiers as part of their Thanksgiving meal. Whichever cranberry recipe you end up eating on Thanksgiving, it just might be the most venerable dish on your menu.

Pumpkin pie is a great make-ahead dessert to cross off your Thanksgiving to-do list. You can prepare and bake the pie up to two days in advance, and it will still taste great on the big day. Just make sure you store the pie in the refrigerator—not on the kitchen counter—until you are ready to serve it.

Overview. Cooked and puréed pumpkin flesh is mixed with eggs, evaporated milk, sugar, and spices. The pie is then baked in a pie shell and sometimes topped with whipped cream.

So the only real pumpkin pies out there are made by die-hard cooks who buy fresh pumpkins and then steam them so they can remove and puree the flesh. Everyone else is eating squash pie instead. And--it's not just pie.

Pumpkins (along with other forms of squash) were a historically important food staple among Native Americans. They would grow the squash along river banks next to maize and beans, a planting technique that was called the “Three Sisters Method,” which allowed the three crops to sustain each other.

pepo, your classic bright orange pumpkin, actually doesn't make for the best pie. With 90 percent water content and mostly hollow insides, true "pumpkin pie" can come out pretty bland and soupy. Squash is better in every way except, perhaps, appearance -- it's sweeter, fleshier and creamier.