The Pumpkin

Ah! on Thanksgiving Day, when from East and from West,

From North and from South come the pilgrim and guest,

When the gray-haired New Englander sees round his board

The old broken links of affection restored,

When the care-wearied man seeks his mother once more,

And the worn matron smiles where the girl smiled before,

What moistens the lip and what brights the eye,

What calls back the past, like the rich pumpkin pie?

O fruit loved of boyhood! the old days recalling,

When wood-grapes were purpling and brown nuts were falling!

When wild, ugly faces were carved in it's skin,

Glaring out through the dark with a candle within!

When we laughed round the corn-heap, with hearts all in tune,

Our chair a broad pumpkin,-our lantern the moon,

Telling tales of the fairy who travelled like steam,

In a pumpkin-shell coach with two rats for her team!

Then thanks for thy present! none sweeter or better

E'er smoked from the oven or circled a platter!

Fairer hands never wrought at a pastry more fine,

Brighter eyes never watched o'er its baking, than thine!

And the prayer, which my mouth is too full to express,

Swells my heart that thy shadow may never be less,

That the days of thy lot may be lengthened below,

And thy fame of thy worth like a pumpkin-vine grow,

And thy life be as sweet, and its last sunset sky

Golden-tinted and fair as thy own Pumpkin pie!

 The Classic Thanksgiving Dessert



Best Ever Pumpkin Pie

Pastry dough for a 9" or 10" pie shell


Filling:

2 cups pumpkin puree
2/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 Tablespoon flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
11/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
pinch of freshly ground black pepper
1 cup heavy cream
3 Tablespoons bourbon or rum (optional)
11/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Whipped cream flavored with pure maple syrup
or vanilla extract for serving

Roll out dough and fit into deep pie pan; form a fluted edge.
Chill dough; preheat oven to 400 degrees. Line dough with aluminum
foil. Bake pie shell 8 minutes. Remove foil; gently prick dough with fork
and bake 5 minutes, or until surface of pastry is dry.
Meanwhile, whisk all filling ingredients together in a large
mixing bowl. Correct seasonings; pour mixture into pie shell.

Bake until filling is set but still slightly wobbly in the center,
usually about 45 minutes.  Cool pie on a wire rack.
Serve with whipped cream.




"The Pumpkin"
John Greenleaf Whittier
(1807-1892)
American Quaker Poet

"Best-Ever Pumpkin Pie"
From "The Most Popular Home-Baked Desserts
of the Past 200 Years"
 By Richard Sax
Featured in the 200th Anniversary Issue
(1792-1992) 
Special Commemorative 1992 Edition of
  The Old Farmer's Almanac
 By Robert B. Thomas
Copyright 1991 
Yankee Publishing Inc.