Ed Levine's New York Eats - edlevineeats.seriouseats.com

Taking out pumpkin pie out of thanksgiving dinner is like going to a Dodger's game and not eating a dodger dog. It won't kill you or ruin the game, but you'll be missing out of the entire dodger experience.

But I am a bit biased as I love pumpkin pie, store bought or homemade. This is something I can eat even when it's not thanksgiving!

How dare you! I'd take pumpkin pie over every pie you listed (except for Pecan & Key Lime). Stop being crazy!

I kind of like pumpkin cheesecake...

I agree with you... I want to like it because I absolutely love the aroma of a fresh-baked pumpkin pie. But I just don't like the taste and the texture. I've always been partial to blueberry, blackberry and rhubarb (it doesn't need the strawberries, imo) myself, and I look forward to Thanksgiving every year when my mother-in-law makes a fantastic blueberry pie just for me!

UGH. I keep trying and trying and trying to even stomach pumpkin pie, thinking it was one of my childhood food foibles, but no, it was not. I do not like pumpkin pie, and I'm quite sure I never will.

I don't even bother to tolerate it--we never ate it in my family. Frankly, I don't see the point. Why ruin (what could have been) a perfectly good pie with something like pumpkin? Whoever dreamed up the concept must have been desperate for something to fill a pie crust with...

Love pumpkin pie! Though I agree that bad pumpkin pie can be terrible. But when it's good it's sooooo good -- smooth texture, spices that tickle your tongue, thin, crisp crust... YUM!

This year I'm being wild and crazy and making pumpkin creme brulee (I know, this is wild and crazy? I need to get out more...) and instead of a fruit pie I'm going to do a pear and tart cherry crisp.

Pumpkin Pie is an annual tradition that reminds us of when the first settlers had to eat this stuff or starve.

Quote:
Historians think that the settlers were not very impressed by the Indians’ squash and/or pumpkins until they had to survive their first harsh winter when about half of the settlers died from scurvy and exposure.

pumpkin pie is the ONLY kind of pie i like.

I stand firmly in the camp of pumpkin pie tolerators. I did not grow up eating pumpkin pie and it wasn't a flavor that I grew fond of later on. My husband, on the other hand, is a true fan and would take it over most other pies any day. I chalk it up to cultural/childhood differences and so we make our Thanksgiving Wasp/Jewish Fusion - The Pumpkin Cheesecake..Which is actually quite delicious.

Personally, I love pumpkin pie. I also love pecan pie. In my family (well, on one side anyway) there is always a pumpkin pie and a pecan pie at Thanksgiving. While pumpkin pie is probably my favorite, I also enjoy most other pies as well... not sure I've ever turned a slice down.

I am a tolerater, too. I won't search it out, but I can eat a piece to be polite and not be disgusted. It helps if it is our family's graham crust-streusel topped-orange marmalade in the filling version though. Plenty of yummy things to distract from the blah pumpkin part!

I am not a fan of pumpkin pie myself. I used to think it was because I didn't like the pumpkin itself, but then I started making a terrific pumpkin soup. It isn't the texture, as I enjoy sweet potato pie which is similar in make-up. It is hard to pinpoint the reason, but I definitely don't seek it out.

Love it. Sorry, Ed--guess you can't ask for a full ban this year! :-) Maybe it's because I'm more of a savory dessert fan? Who knows/cares? A good pumpkin pie is a thing of beauty, imo. Fwiw, I recently had a piece of a Whole Foods pp, and it was fantastic.

I'm pretty good with it, but it can move up to glam with Pichet Ong's spicy graham cracker crust and utterly divine caramel sauce. Recipe is here:
http://stlouiseats.typepad.com/st_louis_eats_and_drinks_/2006/11/tweaking_the_pu.html .

Years ago, my then-husband and I were at a church supper before Thanksgiving, and I'd brought a couple of pumpkin pies; we were young and poor and it was inexpensive since we lived on a dairy farm and had butter and milk at hand. I was dismayed to see three other pies there, each from different people. We didn't sit together to eat, but I crossed paths with him coming back from the dessert table. "That's my pie," I said, looking at his plate. "You can get that at home. Get something else." "I tried the other three pies already. Yours is better."

The James Beard recipe that calls for preserved ginger and brandy (available through an internet search) has changed the mind of many a pumpkin-pie hater.

First off, one should have a veritable pie spread for Thanksgiving. I personally make 5 every year: pumpkin, apple, custard, pecan, and chocolate. Otherwise, how can you have pie for breakfast on Friday?

I never liked pumpkin pie until 4 or 5 years ago when I decided to try the recipe in an old copy of Cook's Illustrated. I wanted to see what all the fuss was. And that's when I learned what the fuss was--it's rich, creamy, spicy, and divine.

I'm largely indifferent to pumpkin pie. I'm with Ed - pass the key lime.

I have started to like pumpkin pie over the last few years since finding the key to making a really good one. You just need to undercook it a little bit... take it out when it's still a touch jiggly like you would a cheesecake and it sets up perfectly, so smooth and creamy. Very yummy.

what a lot of controversy over the humble pumpkin pie! i had no idea it was a love/hate relationship with everyone. you either love it or hate it, kind of like opera.

Love pumpkin pie. Love how the crust gets soggy. Thinking about where I can get some RIGHT NOW! Whipped cream is a necessary add-on.

I'm with ECA- no fan of berry pies, and certainly no fan of key lime.

Sooo, I'm willing to trade my piece of key lime for Ed's piece of pumpkin. Everybody wins!

To answer the question posed: Yes, I love pumpkin pie.

I love pumpkin pie for the same reason that I love flan and would chose creme caramel over creme brulée. The smooth texture and egginess of the custard pie please me, especially since the proportions of egg to cream to puréed squash balance one another. The vegetable tempers the richness of the pie.

I love pumpkin pie because I love winter squash, one of the things that makes the end of peach and tomato season not so bad. The Japanese notion of wabi-sabi applies to the bumpy, irregularly shaped, squat, heavy squashes with their woody stems, speckles and splotches. There is beauty in the misshapen, clunky and unwieldy things of the world. I love the sound a knife makes slicing through the flesh, ending in the final, emphatic thump.

I love the mutable textures of squash, the different ways they roast, especially: caramelizing, concentrating, giving out liquid as they give up the ghost in the machine that is my oven.

While orange is often cited as a least favorite color, I like the color of pumpkins which wear the season as much as asparagus does in the spring. Stirring brown sugar into the bright color of the purée seems poetic to me as I look out the window at all the crumpled brown leaves on the ground.

I don't love the viscous mess within the cavity: sort of like the web of a spider with a really bad cold or long strands of hair stuck in the bathtub drain. But if parents can wipe bottoms on the changing table and still love their babies, I can still love pumpkins and don't buy them canned.

I understand certain types of pumpkins are stringy, watery and lack flavor. However, there are perfectly lovely varities and specimens that suffer a noble death to be baked into a pie; they need not be replaced by butternut squash or what Americans call kaboucha, which frankly, purées to a gloriously smooth consistency but is too delicately flavored to stand up to the spices.

Cinnamon. Freshly grated ginger. Nutmeg. Mace. Just a pinch of cloves which might otherwise bother the hell out of me. Molasses. Brown sugar. I love pumpkin pie for the same reason I love gingerbread.

Plus, I make a damn fine pie crust and when you master the art of keeping it crisp, flaky and tender without turning the bottom under a custard pie into a slick, sodden surface of uncooked dough, the contrast between the moist custard and dry pastry makes me happy.

I am okay with the fact that Ed Levine does not like pumpkin pie just as I accept the way it gets dark a whole lot quicker in the winter or the number of people who thought "Da Vinci Code" worth buying.

Calvin Trillin's campaign for replacing turkey with spaghetti carbonara on Thanksgiving was very funny.

The question posed here is in the same vein.

It is satisfying to stand apart from the norms and conventions of one's culture and know what makes you different. I am thankful for the fact that those of us who celebrate Thanksgiving have the freedom to express contrarian thoughts, and in so doing, seek solidarity among those who feel the same.

It is most generous of Ed Levine to accept, nonetheless, the premise that not everyone shares his dispassion. To not impose his tastes on the rest of us. To ask.

I love GOOD pumpkin pie. There are two criteria by which I judge it - spicing and texture. If it is grainy it is no good. It must also have sufficient spicing. Many pies are bland, and if they use a squash combination, even the pumpkin flavor is poor.

Many canned pumpkins don't use all pumpkin. Go with Libby's if you use canned. Butternut squash makes a better "pumpkin" pie than all but the best and hard to find types of pumpkins; especially better than cheap store "carving" pumpkins, or mixed canned squash.

Most recipes (like LIBBY'S® Famous Pumpkin Pie) don't use sufficient spices, many lack nutmeg. You can almost double every spice in their recipe for a great pie.

Thanksgiving dinner is always a big sitdown feast at our house. The fewest we ever have had was 12, the most was 20. This year, we're looking at 16 to 18. One good friend always brings desserts -- three or sometimes even four of them.

She does fabulous pies (pumpkin, apple, mince, squash, sweet potato, cranberry-plus-something) or perhaps a pumpkin cheesecake. When she makes pumpkin something, she steams a fresh pumpkin, and the result is always far better than one made with canned pumpkin. But then, I like that too. My son prefers sweet potato pie. My husband doesn't care for either.
Claire @ culinary-colorado.blogspot.com

Thanks for yourmeditation, Eliz: should be required reading for those with reservations. There is a great deal of love in our family for the once a year treat of pumpkin pie. We stagger to the kitchen on Friday morning, pour a cup of good, strong coffee and have more PUMPKIN pie (we'll think of you, Seyo). We don't even consider turkey sandwiches for at least two hours! I think that if you love and appreciate excellent vanilla ice cream, you probably feel the same way about excellent pumpkin pie (unless you have problems with the texture). Oh, the anticipation is building!!!

Like many things, bad pumpkin pie is tolerable but great pumpkin pie makes me giddy just thinking about it. Mine is a pumpkin pecan pie and making one is the official start of the holidays. I like mine cold for breakfast.

The only bad pumpkin pie I ever had was when my mom made one without the sugar by accident.
I love pumpkin pie, pumpkin cheesecake and all things pumpkin (of the sweet variety, like breads, cookies and muffins). I like my pie cold, and I love to eat it for breakfast!
I'm going to my MIL's for Thanksgiving and have no idea what she'll have. I'm going to ask if I can make a pumpkin pie!

Pumpkin pie is my absolute FAVORITE kind of pie (key lime coming in a close second). But it's also one of the pies easiest for people to mess up. I can't tell you how many crap pumpkin pies I've been forced to eat in my life. I remedy this situation by baking my own every year, and even non-believers are converted.

To me, it's important that you use fresh pumpkin (or, as a Greenmarket farmer once tipped me to, Hubbard squash), that you add something to make it creamier (like, say, CREAM), that the spice blend be correct, and that it not be overbaked. I tend to put my pie filling in the blender, to aerate it and make it very fluffy and creamy. I used to make a pie that was a marriage of the recipe in the Joy of Cooking and one in Craig Claiborne's NYTimes Cookbook, but a few years ago I switched to this one that uses a maple syrup reduction: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/13429

I second EVERYTHING in @Eliz's post, right down to Trillin's carbonara campaign.

And, sorry, @Lilla, but I hate fruitcake and yes--you've never had a good pumpkin pie. It's possible!

Pumpkin pie is the essence of mediocrity

As Garrison Keillor put it so well "The best pumpkin pie you ever ate isn't that much better than the worst pumpkin pie you ever ate"

He also said something about how its just vehicle for nutmeg.

I eat it with pleasure one time a year and that is plenty!

kig19

I grant you that it's entirely possible I've never had a "good" pumpkin pie, but my point was that it *doesn't matter*. I'm not going to like even a "good" pumpkin pie. I don't like the taste of pumpkin; I don't much care for the spices used; I really dislike the texture...I could go on. So basically, if you cover it in gold leaf and stud it with rubies, I still don't want any...

Love it! Especially leftover the next morning for breakfast, cold with whipped cream.

I love love love pumpkin pie BUT the pastry has to be good.

I don't care for pie at Thanksgiving at all. I don't even remember the last time it appeared at our Thanksgiving. It might not be a stretch to say that the next time pie appears at our Thanksgiving, it'll be the first time.

we love pumpkin pie here! we eat it all year round, not just during the holidays. (eliz, I love your post! you're my kind of people!)

If you must have pumpkin pie, there are some things that can help. Making it into a chiffon pie helps. Putting it into a dark chocolate cookie crust helps too . . . and studding it with white chocolate chips is a boon.

Better than chiffon is meringue. Not the dance, though if you do it while cooking the rhythm is bound to enter into the spirit of the pie, livening it into something sexy rather than the usual pedestrian poseur that it is. Pumpkin meringue pie with bits of broken peanut brittle tossed on top is not too shabby.
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By the way, has anyone tried the little pumpkin pies they now have at McDonald's? (Insert Twilight Zone music)

I am glad that I am incharge of the Thanksgiving meal and get to decide what stays on the table. Pumpkin pie is definitely NOT on the menu. Come to think of it, it has never been on the menu anytime of the year!

I would have agreed with this opinion until this year (we've already had one Thanksgiving). I made Cooks Illustrated/America's Test Kitchen recipe for Pumpkin Pie.

It is some truly awesome pumpkin pie and is so good that we'll be enjoying it again for Thanksgiving and probably several times more during the winter!

I can't recommend this recipe enough! There is something about putting the pumpkin through the food processor, then heating it with the spices, then back to the food processor and finally adding warm filling to a warm pie crust that turns this into a smooth, creamy, delightful pie to look forward to eating after all that turkey!

If you've been using store bought pie crust and the recipe on the back of the pumpkin can you need to give America's Test Kitchen's recipe a shot, I bet it changes your opinion about what dessert to look forward to on turkey day!

Isn't the Magnolia Grill in Durham rather than Chapel Hill?

World's Largest Pumpkin Pie

This pie was 2,020 pounds. It measured 12 feet, 4 inches wide and 4 inches deep. The pie recipe included 900 pounds of pumpkin, 155 dozen eggs, 62 gallons of evaporated milk, 300 pounds of sugar, 3.5 pounds of salt, 7 pounds of cinnamon and 2 pounds of pumpkin pie spice. The pie lost over 200 pounds while baking.

Yup, I do. But ONLY when it is made with homemade pastry. No graham cracker or store-bought crust for me!!

I love pumpkin pie...The trick is a good crust and a quality filling with tons of whipped cream. I think most people who dislike pumpkin pie are just used to the frozen ones. This year I am servinging Pumpkin Cheesecake...You can't go wrong there.

Funny, I'm a fan of pumpkin pie, but stand firmly in the apple pie tolerators' camp. I've never had an apple pie that I truly liked. I'm not going to turn it down if that's the only kind of pie, but I'd much rather have pumpkin, cherry (even with the canned filling), caramel banana, pecan, key lime, etc. I love all kinds of pie, but apple is at the bottom.

I love pumpkin pie..and I love key lime pie. But just like I would not be up for pumpkin pie in July - I wouldn't be up for key lime in November. My pie tastes have seasons attached!!! Except for warm peach pie. I could eat that year round with ice cream on top. YUM!

For those of you (Ed) who like pumpkin-whatever-else (ice cream, cheesecake, bread etc.): Is it the custardy texture of the pie you don't like?

I love pimpkin pie so much that as a kid I used to ask for it as my birthday cake, thus ensuring that I would get it at least twice a year.

I hate pumpkin pie, it is one of only three foods (cantaloupe and ketchup are the other two) that I can't even stand to smell, much less eat. Ick.