Peek into Panola - Recipes
By Vina Lee
The air is crisp with enough cold to paint the Maple leaves gold and orange. The stately Oaks scatter their acorns and squirrels scamper to stuff them into their cheeks, then dash off to store them in their favorite hiding places.
Traditions from hundreds of years ago are passed down again to the youngest new mothers and homemakers as Panola County dresses its streets in holiday cheer. When the Pilgrims celebrated the first Thanksgiving nearly 400 years ago, they might have finished their meal with a savory squash dish cooked in its own shell over the smoldering embers of a fire, spiced with herbs like rosemary and thyme, sweetened with honey or maple syrup and moistened with milk. This pumpkin porridge of sorts would evolve into pumpkin pie in about 200 years.
I remember making chiffon pies when I was in high school 4-H and that is another version of our now traditional pie. When my girls were small, we made jack-o-lanterns in October, spooned out the meat of them and made pies to go in the freezer for Thanksgiving.
The perfect pumpkin pie. Rich, simple, delicious - that's how I would characterize the nearly 200-year-old recipe of Lydia Maria Child. Child is best-known as author of "Over the river and through the woods, to grandmother's house we go …." She was an abolitionist, a human rights activist and a journalist. She wrote novels, books on etiquette and a history of world religions. She also wrote a cookbook about 1829. Here is her recipe for Pumpkin Pie.
Pumpkin or Squash Pie
Despite the recipe title, Child focuses on pumpkin, on the presumption that other common winter varieties of squash, such as acorn, butternut and turban, behave the same way in the kitchen. So make this versatile pie all year around.
Makes two 10-inch pies
- 1 medium sugar pumpkin (about 3 pounds)
- 4 cups milk
- 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
- more to taste
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- more to taste
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- more to taste
- Grated zest of 1 lemon optional
- 3 eggs, whisked to mix.
- 2 10-inch pie shells
- 2 10-inch pie pans
To cook pumpkin: Cut flesh in half, scoop out and discard seeds and cut the flesh in chunks; about 2 pounds. Put pumpkin in a saucepan with water to cover base of the pan. Add the lid and cook over medium heat, stirring often, so pumpkin steams until it can be crushed easily with a fork, 30-45 minutes.
Heat oven to 400 degrees. For filling, heat milk in a large saucepan. Stir in pumpkin puree and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, so the mixture thickens slightly, about 20 minutes. Let cool to tepid, then stir in sugar, salt, cinnamon, ginger and lemon if using. Taste and adjust sweetness and spice. Stir in eggs.
Transfer filling to pie shells. Set pies on baking sheet and bake in the oven 15 minutes. Lower heat to 350 degrees and continue baking until pies are firm but slightly wobbly in the center, 40 to 50 minutes more. Serve at room temperature.