Try this tasty pumpkin pie recipe from 17th century

AS Halloween night nears, we would normally be preparing our costumes, making sure we have treats for visiting trick or treaters and decorating our homes.

Although Covid-19 is changing how we enjoy the fright night of the year, it has not halted everything we do.

And one activity enjoyed by many is pumpkin carving. An activity that brings the family together to create the scariest of faces ready to light up their front windows or gardens and spook passers-by.

But how many of us think more about the pumpkin and where it came from or actually use it to its full advantage?

Looking at its history, Archaeologists working in Central America have found remains of pumpkin rinds and seeds in human settlements dating back to 7,000 BC.

In Britain, when we first encountered a pumpkin it was named the “pumpion,” a word derived from the old French word pompon, and the classical Greek pepon – both of which meant “melon.” They were first mentioned in the English language in a plant book printed by Peter Treveris, called The Grete Herball, produced in London in 1526.

Today pumpkin is eaten in both savoury and sweet dishes, but the most popular use for it is by cooking it in a sweet pumpkin pie.

One of the earliest recipes for pumpkin pie or rather “To make a Pumpion Pie,” appears in a 17th-century cookbook written by Hannah Woolley.

Born in 1622 and raised in London, Woolley established a name for herself predominantly as a book publisher. Dozens of recipe books appeared in her name and Woolley was an early adapter when it came to pumpkin. In a book called The Queen-Like Closet (1670), Woolley included this recipe:

To make a Pumpion Pie

Take a Pumpion, pare it, and cut it in thin slices, dip it in beaten Eggs and Herbs shred small, and fry it till it be enough, then lay it into a Pie with Butter, Raisins, Currans, Sugar and Sack, and in the bottom some sharp Apples; when it is baked, butter it and serve it in.

Rather than waste the contents of your pumpkin this year, why not have a go at making a Pumpkin pie? Hannah Woolley’s recipe has been adapted for you to have a go and the recipe is here:

Ingredients

Two unbaked pie crusts: one for the top of the pie, one for the bottom

2 cups of peeled, sliced pumpkin

2 cups of peeled, sliced tart apples

3 tbsp. butter

Quarter cup of raisins

Quarter cup of dried currants

Quarter cup of sugar

Half tsp cinnamon

Half tsp nutmeg

Quarter tsp cloves

3 tbsp sherry

Method

Heat the oven to gas mark 7. Peel the pumpkin and apples and slice them into pieces that are roughly the same size. Melt 1 tbsp of butter in a frying pan and sauté the pumpkin until softened. Combine the cooked pumpkin, apples, raisins, and currants in a bowl. Toss them gently with the sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and sherry. Set aside.

Place the first (bottom) pie crust in a pie pan, allowing for two inches of crust to drape over the sides. Layer the mixture into the pie.

Dot the top with the remaining 2 tbsp. of butter. Cover with the second (top) crust, crimp the edges, and cut a few vents in the crust to allow steam to escape.

Bake on gas mark 7 for 15 minutes, then lower the temperature to gas mark 5, turn the pie, and bake for another 50-60 minutes.

Total baking time is between 65-75 minutes.

l Helen Harding is a food historian with local education company, Discover History. 

Helen has a passion for the recreating the history of food and drink and likes nothing better than experimenting with historical recipes and bringing them back to life.

An avid collector of cook books, she is quite often seen at visitor attractions portraying a historic cook, performing on the main stage at a food festival, or giving talks to groups and societies.

Her work can be found at A Taste of yesterday on Facebook and on Twitter and Instagram at @tasteyesterday.