The History of Pumpkin Pie

If pumpkins are a "New World" food, why are they sometimes listed as ingredients in Medieval European recipes? If you notice, these references are usually found in Medieval cooking books with modernized recipes. The original recipes simply call for squash or gourds. Why substitute pumpkin? Some Medieval recipes for members of the curcurbit family (gourds, calabash, cucumbers, melons) are more palatable to contemporary tastes if you make them with pumpkin. It's also readily available.

"3. Winter Squash or Pumpkin Soup...The curcurbits are a large, rich family including cucumbers, melons, and squashes. But the Old World knew neither the winter squash (Curcurbita pepo) nor the pumpkin (Curcurbita maxima), both of which were brought from the Americas. If we can trust the title of the recipe, Congordes, and if we think of the depictions of squash (zucche) harvests in the many manuscripts comprising the Tacuinum sanitatis--a medical treatise of Arab origin that lists the medicinal properties of various foods--the cook is probably dealing here with gourds (Lagenaria vulgaris). These came originally from southern Asia, and were well known in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. But without fresh gourds to hand, you can prepare this soup with winter squash or pumpkin."
--- The Medieval Kitchen: Recipes from France and Italy , Odile Redon, Francoise Sabban, & Silvano Serventi, translated by Edward Schneider [University of Chicago Press:Chicago] 1998 (p. 55-6)

"As for pumpkin pie, in particular, in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century England "people of substance" were familiar with a form of pumpkin pie that both followed the medieval tradition of "rich pies of mixed ingredients" and also bore resemblance to the consumption of apple-stuffed pumpkins typically engaged in by people of lesser substance...Pumpkin pie went out of fashion in Britain during the eighteenth century. Perhaps Edward Johnson reflected this emerging attitude in the 1650s when he offered as a sign of New England's progress toward prosperity the fact that in most households people were eating "apples, pears, and quince tarts instead of their former Pumpkin Pies." Pumpkin had been superceded by the more civilized fruits (free of association with the natives), of which the settlers had first been deprived. Such an anticipation that pumpkin pie was on the way out was premature, as far as the developments on this side of the Atlantic were concerned."
--- America's Founding Food: The Story of New England Cooking , Keith Stavely & Kathleen Fitzgerald [University of North Carolina Press:Chapel Hill] 2004 (p. 67-8)
[NOTE: This book contains far more information than can be paraphrased here. Please ask your librarian to help you find a copy.]

"Among vegetables, the Northeastern Indians made particularly lavish use of squash, even more than other American Indians, and especially of pumpkin. Both squash and pumpkin were baked, usually by being placed whole in the ashes or embers of a dying fire (in the case of squash, the acorn and butternut varieties were preferred) and they were moistened afterwards wtih some form of animal fat, or maple syrup, or honey; and both were also made into soup. When pumpkin was made into a soup, it often underwent some enriching which converted it into something more like a stew. A seventeenth century Oneida recipe specified that pumpkin should be "boiled with meat to the consistency of potato soup."
--- Eating in America: A History , Waverley Root & Richard de Rochemont [William Morrow:New York] 1976 (p. 41)

A SURVEY OF PUMPKIN PIE RECIPES THROUGH TIME
The earliest European recipes for pumpkin pie appear in the 17th century. They are titled "pompion." The early English use of the word "pompion" (French for "pumpkin") may imply these recipes originated in France.
[1653]
"Potage of pumpkin.
Seethe well your pumpkin, so that it will be more thickened than ordinary, then fry a chibol with butter, and put it in with salt, and serve with pepper." (p. 213)
[NOTE: potage is akin to soup]

"Potage of pumpkin with milk.
After it is well sod, pass it through a straining pan, and leave not much broth in it, because of the milk which you must put in it. When it is well seasoned with milk and a little butter, stove or soak your bread, and serve with pepper if you will." (p. 213-4)

"Tourte of pumpkin.
Boile it with good milk, pass it through a straining pan very thick, and mix it with sugar, butter, a little salt and if you will, a few stamped almonds; let all be very thin. Put it in your sheet of paste; bake it. After it is baked, besprinkle it with sugar and serve."
--- The French Cook , Francois Pierre La Varenne [1653], Translated into English in 1653 by I.D.G., Introduced by Philip and Mary Hyman [East Sussex:Southover Press} 2001 (p. 199-200)
[NOTE: the word pumpkin is thought to derive from the old French word pompion, which in turn is derived from the Greek pepon, meaning melon. The tip of this complicated linguistic puzzle!]

[1685]
"To make a Pumpion Pie.
Take a pound of pumpion and slice it, a handful of thyme, a little rosemary, and sweet marjoram stripped off the stalks, chop them small, then take cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, and a few cloves all beaten, also ten eggs, and beat them, them mix and beat them all together, with as much sugar as you think fit, then fry them like a froise, after it is fried, let it stand till it is cold, then fill your pie with this manner. Take sliced apples sliced thin round ways, and lay a layer of the froise, and a layer of apples with currants betwixt the layers. While your pie is sitted, put in a good deal of sweet butter before your close it. When the pie is baked, take six yolks of eggs, some white-wine or verjuyce, and make a caudle of this, but not too thick, but cut up the lid, put it in, and stir them well together whilst the eggs and pumpion be not perceived, and so serve it up."
--- The Accomplisht Cook , Robert May, facisimile reprint 1685 edition [Prospect Books:Devon] 2000 (p. 224)
[NOTE: according to the glossary in the back of this book, a "Froise" was like a pancake or omelette.]

[1796] " Pompkin (pie)
American Cookery , Amelia Simmons

[1824]
"Pumpkin pudding
Stew a fine sweet pumpkin till soft and dry, rub it through a sieve, mix with the pulp six eggs quite light, a quarter of a pound of butter, half a pint of new milk, some pounded ginger and nutmeg, a wine glass of brandy, and sugar to your taste. Should it be too liquid, stew it a little dryer; put a paste round the edges and in the bottom of a shallow dish or plate, pour in the mixture, cut some thin bits of paste, twist them and lay them across the top and bake it nicely."
--- The Virginia House-Wife , Mary Randolph, with Historical Notes and Commentaries by Karen Hess [University of South Carolina Press:Columbia] 1984 (p. 154)

Modern interpretation here:
"Abigail Adams' Pumpkin Pie
1 1/2 cups pumpkin
3/4 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
1/2 teaspoon fresh ginger root, grated
1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup heavy cream
3/4 cup milk
1/4 cup dark rum, or brandy
3 eggs, lighly beaten
Pecans
Whipped cream
10-inch pie shell, unbaked

Mix all ingredients together and our into the prepared pastry shell. Bake at 425 degrees F. For 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees F. And bake for 40 minutes more, or until a knife inserted in center comes out clean. Garnish with pecans and whipped cream flavoured with rum or brandy."
--- The Thirteen Colonies Cookbook , Mary Donovan et al, [Montclair Historical Society:Montclair NJ] 1975 (p. 34)
[NOTE: If you are, or will be serving this to people under 21, please OMIT THE ALCOHOL.]

You can examine several 19th century

Of course, you can always make your pie from scratch with real pumpkins !