The Origins of a Thanksgiving Favorite.

It’s that time of year to look forward to all the season’s desserts. Do you prefer Pumpkin Pie or Pecan Pie? We already read about the pumpkin pie origins, and now on to the pecan pie. Learn the pecan pie history and how the dessert was popularized.

Pecan Pie History

The origins of the nut itself came from the southern parts of the United States. Nuts in general were a prominent part of the diet of Native Americans more than 10,000 years ago which carried on to the period when Europeans came to the Americas. When they tasted the nuts, they found ways to incorporate them into their own dishes from home.

The French settlers in New Orleans brought their recipes of sugar pies which were created in the Middle Ages featuring both sweet and savory fillings and then added the native nuts, like pecans.

The first pecan pie recipe can be found in a cookbook from St. Louis, Missouri dated 1898. These early versions of the pie used molasses and cane syrups.

A few decades later in the 1930s, the company Karo printed the recipe for pecan pie on their corn syrup label. Because of that, pecan pies were put in the national spotlight and the pie and the corn syrup became a popular Thanksgiving and holiday dessert.

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