The Great Thanksgiving Pie Debate Lives

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, the answer likely depends on where they're from. The Thanksgiving favorites have more in common than not, similar in color, taste, and texture and derived from European carrot pie. Sugar Magnolia Takery in Flowood, Mississippi, makes both pumpkin and sweet potato pies, reports the AP. Owner Elizabeth Arnold says the main difference between her pies comes down to spice: Sweet potato is sweeter, made with white and brown sugar; pumpkin pie is less sweet, yet is spicier.

And at Arnold's bakery, sweet potato tends to outsell pumpkin. That's not surprising in a Southern bakery, explains culinary author Adrian Miller. Sweet potato pie, he explained, is particularly popular in the South, where sweet potatoes have deep roots in the region's culture, economy, and painful past. "If there were to be a Mount Rushmore of soul food desserts, sweet potato pie would definitely be there," Miller says. Pumpkin pie, meanwhile, while ubiquitous, is more often associated with the northern US.

The stereotypes boil down to this: Pumpkin pie is favored by white northerners, while sweet potato pie is a favorite among Black Southerners. The intertwining of sweet potatoes and southern Black culture began with slavery. Sweet potatoes were a staple for many enslaved people in the Americas, says culinary historian Michael W. Twitty. It was an accessible, familiar food, similar to the yams and cassava that make up a cornerstone of African cuisine. Enslaved people are credited with perfecting the sweet potato pie recipe, though Europeans are thought to be the first to attempt it.

With limited access to sweet potatoes in the North, pumpkin likely reigned supreme. The tradition of pumpkin pie goes back centuries, to the Colonial period, Miller says. A recipe for pumpkin pie was included in the nation's first cookbook, written in 1796 by Amelia Simmons. Twitty, however, says the stereotypes don't hold up in many communities. With both desserts ingrained in American history, tradition, and culture, the debate over which is better, Twitty argues, is really about identity. "We can have fun with good-natured ribbing between regions and cultures," he notes. "At the same time, don't let it get too serious to the point where it's like hard, fast markers of who you are, who I am, who we are."