Classic American Pumpkin Pie is Actually French and Isn’t Made of Pumpkins

Appears in
Pie for Everyone: Recipes and Stories from Petee's Pie, New York's Best Pie Shop
Pie for Everyone

By Petra Paredez

Published 2020

  • About
One of the questions that autopopulates on Google when you look up “pumpkin pie” is “how do you make pumpkin pie from a pumpkin?” This indicates that people are ready to resist the reductive simplicity of the canned pumpkin recipe in favor of something a little messier, much fresher, and more in tune with the seasons.

Libby’s is easily the most recognizable canned pumpkin purveyor. The company was primarily known for canned meat and dairy until it bought the rights to the Dickinson pumpkin varietal and made canned pumpkin commercially available in 1929.* From that point on, the recipe on the back of the can, which involved both canned pumpkin and canned milk, dominated American kitchens. This is understandable; the reliably smooth and concentrated texture of canned pumpkin is very forgiving and expedient for the home cook. With the commercial availability of canned pumpkin, a baker could whip up a pumpkin pie without having to dissect and disembowel a stubborn old gourd, roast it (but not so aggressively as to dry it out) or steam it and strain the excess liquid, and then puree it into submission.