Pumpkin Spice – Where’s the Pumpkin?

Every fall, some people eagerly await the “Pumpkin Spice” season, while others dread it. No matter where you fall on that spectrum, do you really know what it is and what the name means? That is the subject of this Cooking Tip.

The first thing to know is that there is no pumpkin in pumpkin spice. In fact, pumpkin has minimal natural flavor. According to King Arthur Baking, raw pumpkin is up to 90% water, which explains why it is so lacking in flavor.

Pumpkin is a type of squash. As you will learn from this Cooking Tip, Libby’s Pumpkin Puree is made from a Dickinson squash. As for classic pumpkin pie, one of the best you will ever make doesn’t even use pumpkin. Instead, it uses roasted butternut squash. Check out this recipe.

A pumpkin pie without some version of pumpkin pie spice would be very sad indeed. The deliciousness comes not from the pumpkin, but from the other ingredients, including the added spices. The blend of spices that gives pumpkin pie its characteristic flavor is known as pumpkin spice or pumpkin pie spice.

Each producer of pumpkin spice has their own recipe, but the most commonly included spices are the following.

Cinnamon
Ginger
Nutmeg
Cloves
Allspice

You can certainly buy bottles of pumpkin pie spice. McCormick even produces a liquid extract titled “Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend Extract.” If you do not think you are going to use a purchased bottle of pumpkin pie spice before next year, it would be better to make your own. It will be fresher, you only have to make how much you want to use, you can alter the ratio of the ingredients to match your preferences, and you won’t have a bottle of something that you are not using taking up precious space.

People like to talk about before and after the Pumpkin Spice Latte that Starbucks created in 2003. Pumpkin spice as a spice blend certainly existed long before then. A cookbook from 1798 actually has a couple of recipes in it that use nutmeg and ginger, as well as allspice and ginger. However, this Starbucks beverage created a new cult following for this flavoring profile, and decades later, it shows no signs of slowing down.

It is a trend that is not limited to Starbucks. Look at these other products cashing in on the Pumpkin Spice craze.