Dessert is good too.
Other than turkey, the one thing that reminds me of Thanksgiving is pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie to the early settlers in America is nothing like what we eat today as our dessert at Thanksgiving. It was a bread shell with milk, honey, and spices as the filling. Today it is a graham cracker crust with: mushed pumpkin, eggs, cinnamon, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, and salt. The pumpkin pie has definitely evolved. Native Americans first introduced pumpkins to the Thanksgiving meal.
The story of the first Thanksgiving is a well-known one. However, something I didn’t know was that gifts that the Native Americans brought to the settlers were some pumpkins. Native Americans had roasted and boiled the pumpkins. The settlers looked down on the idea of this strange food until nearly half of them died from scurvy. They became more open minded after they realized their negativity was killing them. They shared their first meal with the Native Americans, the first Thanksgiving, but no Pumpkin pie was present there. Pumpkin Pie would not appear at dinner tables on Thanksgiving in America until about 50 years after the first Thanksgiving. Before the pumpkin pie we know today appeared on American dinner tables, other pumpkin recipes were developing all over the world.
The pumpkin pie grew out of several different recipes. The first was a French tourte of pumpkin. The English adapted it into a pie, and then in America pumpkin was used in what back then was referred to as pudding, which we see as pie. Then it was made usually in the fall months, because that is when pumpkins were in season. Since Thanksgiving is in fall, the dessert became an essential part of that meal. Pumpkin pie, which was once a special treat to be served on Thanksgiving, has transformed into many other things in our culture.
The pumpkin pie has become something that is not only representative of Thanksgiving, but of fall in general. The pumpkin is an all-encompassing fall food. Now we have pumpkin flavored candy, pumpkin scented perfumes and candles, pumpkin ice cream, and even pumpkin spice lattes (YUM). Pumpkin is everywhere in the fall. The color, burnt orange, is a fall color. It matches some of the leaves as they change from green to red. Pumpkin represents fall, and although the pumpkin pie has been incorporated into many other things, it still represents Thanksgiving. In my family, we eat pumpkin pie for dessert at every Thanksgiving meal.
Last Thanksgiving, I was put in charge of desserts at my house. Thanksgiving for me always meant pumpkin pie. I made two pumpkin pies and one apple pie. The pumpkin pie was much less painstaking than the apple pie, and the pumpkin pie tasted just as good, if not better. Even though pumpkin continues to transform into many other things in our society, I still think of it first as a Thanksgiving treat.
The pumpkin may have transformed from what it once was, a peace offering to settlers from the Native Americans, the idea is still represented in (sometimes) peaceful gatherings of family and friends.
The story of the first Thanksgiving is a well-known one. However, something I didn’t know was that gifts that the Native Americans brought to the settlers were some pumpkins. Native Americans had roasted and boiled the pumpkins. The settlers looked down on the idea of this strange food until nearly half of them died from scurvy. They became more open minded after they realized their negativity was killing them. They shared their first meal with the Native Americans, the first Thanksgiving, but no Pumpkin pie was present there. Pumpkin Pie would not appear at dinner tables on Thanksgiving in America until about 50 years after the first Thanksgiving. Before the pumpkin pie we know today appeared on American dinner tables, other pumpkin recipes were developing all over the world.
The pumpkin pie grew out of several different recipes. The first was a French tourte of pumpkin. The English adapted it into a pie, and then in America pumpkin was used in what back then was referred to as pudding, which we see as pie. Then it was made usually in the fall months, because that is when pumpkins were in season. Since Thanksgiving is in fall, the dessert became an essential part of that meal. Pumpkin pie, which was once a special treat to be served on Thanksgiving, has transformed into many other things in our culture.
The pumpkin pie has become something that is not only representative of Thanksgiving, but of fall in general. The pumpkin is an all-encompassing fall food. Now we have pumpkin flavored candy, pumpkin scented perfumes and candles, pumpkin ice cream, and even pumpkin spice lattes (YUM). Pumpkin is everywhere in the fall. The color, burnt orange, is a fall color. It matches some of the leaves as they change from green to red. Pumpkin represents fall, and although the pumpkin pie has been incorporated into many other things, it still represents Thanksgiving. In my family, we eat pumpkin pie for dessert at every Thanksgiving meal.
Last Thanksgiving, I was put in charge of desserts at my house. Thanksgiving for me always meant pumpkin pie. I made two pumpkin pies and one apple pie. The pumpkin pie was much less painstaking than the apple pie, and the pumpkin pie tasted just as good, if not better. Even though pumpkin continues to transform into many other things in our society, I still think of it first as a Thanksgiving treat.
The pumpkin may have transformed from what it once was, a peace offering to settlers from the Native Americans, the idea is still represented in (sometimes) peaceful gatherings of family and friends.