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They’re both round, orange and probably bad for your health, but which is the better Thanksgiving dessert: pumpkin or sweet potato pie? For most people, the answer probably depends on where they’re from.
The two Thanksgiving favorites have a lot in common. They are similar in colour, flavor and texture, and are derived from the European carrot pie. Those similarities make it easy to compare them all.
“Pumpkin,” said Lori Robinson, a customer at Sugar Magnolia Bakery in Flowood. mississippi“My mom cooks it every Thanksgiving, Christmas, every time, It’s so much better than sweet potatoes,”
Unlike some bakeries in the area, Sugar Magnolia Takeaway makes both pumpkin and sweet potato pies.
Owner Elizabeth Arnold said the main difference between the pies at her bakery comes in the spices. Sweet potatoes are sweeter, made from white and brown sugar. Pumpkin pie is less sweet and spicy.
“Sweet potato pie. All day,” said Xavier Pittman, another customer.
Sweet potatoes outsell pumpkins at Arnold’s Bakery.
As culinary writer Adrian Miller, known as a “soul food scholar,” points out, this is no surprise in a Southern bakery.
Sweet potato pie, she said, is especially popular in the South, where the sweet potato has deep roots in the region’s culture, economy and painful past.
“If there were to be Mount Rushmore In soul food desserts, sweet potato pie will definitely be in there,” Miller said.
Pumpkin pie, while ubiquitous, is often associated with the northern part of the country.
The stereotype is based on this: pumpkin pie is preferred by white northerners while sweet potato pie is a favorite of people Black Southern people. But culinary historian and author Michael W. For Twitty, the issue is more subtle.
with both sweets American Twitty argues that history, tradition and culture, while the debate over which is better, is really about identity.
“We can enjoy good-natured crossings between regions and cultures,” Twitty said. “At the same time, don’t let it get serious to the point where it’s like a hard, fast marker of who you are, who I am, who we are.”
Twitty, who grew up in Washington, D.C., did not grow up in the Deep South. But, he said, the South has evolved into them. His family’s southern roots stretch back to the 17th century.
“Everyone always brought two homemade sweet potato pies,” Twitty said of his childhood Thanksgivings.
The intersection of sweet potatoes and southern black culture began with slavery. Twitty said sweet potatoes were a staple food for many enslaved people in America. It was an accessible, familiar food, similar to the yam and cassava that are the cornerstone of African cuisine.
Enslaved people are credited with perfecting the sweet potato pie recipe, although it is believed that Europeans were the first to attempt such a delicacy.
Some people believe that slavery is the reason why sweet potato pie did not become popular AnswerAn abolitionist movement advocated a boycott of goods produced by enslaved people, but, Twitty said, the answer is probably simple: access,
Sweet potatoes and pumpkins were both available in the South. However, early Americans in the North didn’t have much access to the orange sweet potatoes we think of today, Miller said. Instead, northern sweet potatoes had whiter flesh and a more mealy texture.
With limited access to sweet potatoes in the North, pumpkins probably reigned supreme. The pumpkin pie tradition dates back centuries to colonial times, Miller said. A recipe for pumpkin pie was included in the country’s first cookbook, written by Amelia Simmons in 1796.
While there may be some truth to the culinary divide, Twitty said the stereotype does not persist in many communities. Miller, who also has Southern ancestry, said he grew up eating pumpkin and sweet potato pie on Thanksgiving.
“Every day, every year there will be someone who breaks the rules,” Twitty said.