Make a Traditional Pecan Pie

Make Pecan Pie
Posted on 12/21/2020
Make Pecan PieTraditional Holiday Pecan Pie
Zahra Anjum
Staff Writer
[email protected]


December is the month full of holiday excitement and cheer. It is a time to be together with family and friends. The best part of the holidays is the special, heartwarming food.

One dessert that is a classic and easy dish to make is the one and only pecan pie. Pecan pie is both sweet and savory. It is a pie with a savory crust, filled with pecans and corn syrup that goes best with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or chocolate. This pie is a bite full of deliciousness because it really has a candy bar kind of element to it and it is the perfect dessert to have on any occasion.

Texas named their official dessert as pecan pie and not only that, there is the National Pecan Pie day on July 12. However, pecan pie has a unique and interesting history behind it. It originates from the Southern United States.

The mystery behind this dessert is that is where exactly does this dessert come from and how it began. Pecans grow in different Southern states like Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, and Louisiana. It is believed that the origin of this pie goes back to the late 1800s, but some other evidence indicates that it could have been introduced earlier.

There is proof that pecans were a popular item that Native Amerians ate over 10,000 years ago. According to theculturetrip.com, the word “pecan” itself is said to derive from the Algonquin word, which is believed to mean “hard nut to crack”. This nut is protected by it’s shell and it is not easy to crack at all.

However, this nut became a major staple of the Native American’s diet and when there was no protein for them, they lived off of this nut. They discovered the pecan gave them more energy and nutrition then a bison could have given.

One theory for the origin of the pecan pie is that the Native Americans introduced the pecan to the French, who settled in New Orleans and due to their talented baking skills, invented the pecan pie we know of today. In fact, Texas cookbooks that go back to the 1870s include recipes with pecans, but the one that really resembled the pecan pie was a cookbook published in St. Louis in 1898.

It wasn’t until Karo syrup, an invention made in the 20th century, that brought this dessert into fame. According to southernliving.com, Karo syrup was a hugely used syrup in pecan pie recipes, because the manufacturer placed a simple recipe for pecan pie on their label.

The use of Karo syrup grew and this helped to increase the popularity of this dessert and ultimately spread in not just the South, but the whole U.S. In more traditional pecan pie recipes, bakers can still use Karo syrup but there are substitutes.

This dessert is both a classic and traditional dish that can really light the holidays. It brings both savory and sweet elements bakers can customize the way they like it.

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