Pumpkin Pie Is Perfect for Hiding Poison and Six Other Things You Didn’t Know About This Fall Treat

Pumpkin pie might be your favorite, but how much do you know about this ubiquitous Thanksgiving dessert?

4 min readNov 1, 2021

When I was growing up, everyone in my house got their very own pie for Thanksgiving. But before you gasp, there were only three of us, so it wasn’t an outrageous amount of pie to eat. I always requested pumpkin pie for what I think are obvious reasons. It’s velvety, spicy, and sweet, and when topped with ice cream or whipped cream, it’s just bliss to wolf down.

Beyond wondering how much pumpkin pie I could stuff down my gullet every year at the Thanksgiving table, I never really gave this traditional pie a second thought. But did you know that there are some pretty wild facts about pumpkin pie that might give you pause? If anything, these six facts about my favorite pie will undoubtedly give you some ice breaker convo starters for your next holiday gathering.

Pumpkin pie is at least 400 years old.

My knee-jerk reaction is to say heaven because it’s just so damn good. But pumpkin pie had to get a start somewhere. Historically, pumpkin pie likely originated from the Native Americans. Around the year 1621, the Plymouth colonials were gifted pumpkins from Indigenous natives who taught the colonials how to grow and eat this curious squash. The first pumpkin pie is thought to have been a hollowed-out pumpkin filled with simple ingredients like milk, honey, and spices, then slow-cooked over hot coals and ashes.

Baby Boomers love pumpkin pie the most.

Who better to find out what everyone’s favorite pie is than a dentist? The folks over Delta Dental ran a survey back in 2016 to find out which famous Thanksgiving pies Americans love the most, and pumpkin was, of course, the favorite by a considerable margin. But what is most interesting is that the survey broke down the responses by generation. Here’s what the survey said: