@i2ndsight

7 years ago

I love old recipes! Here is my recipe for pumpkin "pie" from my ancestors circa 1621:
Choose a large pumpkin that fits your oven. (Yes, I am using an oven even though my ancestors used banked coals, dirt and ashes before they built an oven!). Choose a smaller pumpkin as well. Bake the smaller pumpkin until it is soft and has a few brown spots on the skin, or about an hour, at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Cool the smaller pumpkin until you can handle it. Peel it and remove the seeds and chop into large chunks. In a large bowl, vigorously combine cream, eggs, molasses and spices. Open the top of the larger pumpkin and remove the seeds. Pour in a little of the cream mixture, then a layer of the cooked chunks of pumpkin, then more cream mixture, then pumpkin until the larger pumpkin is filled. Now bake in a slow oven, 250 degrees Fahrenheit, until the custard is set around the edges and the pumpkin is a bit soft above the mid line, or about two hours or longer, depending on the size of your larger pumpkin. As the pumpkin cools the custard will set firmly and the rest of the pumpkin will become soft. The ingredients need to be increased or decreased depending on the size of your larger pumpkin. I actually start by opening and cleaning the larger pumpkin, then filling it with cold water, then pouring the water from the pumpkin into a measuring tool to determine the volume of the larger pumpkin. Then measure the cooked chunks of the smaller pumpkin. The difference between the larger pumpkin volume and volume of the cooked pumpkin chunks is the amount of cream, eggs and sugar you will need. The reason my ancestors called this a pie is because they craved pastry and bread but only had what they could grow in their early gardens. Flour for pastry and bread requires growing a large stand of wheat then milling the grains into flour. When my family first got to Virginia, there was no mill yet built in Jamestown. Using a pumpkin as a pie shell is quite creative, don't you think?

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