The first Thanksgiving happened in 1621, and you may assume that the must-have pumpkin pie was present, but in reality, these orange fruits and their eponymous pie wouldn’t become a Thanksgiving dessert until many years later, in 1705. Why did it take so long for pumpkins — which date back to 5,500 B.C. — to become a holiday food staple?

Even the most classic dishes have to go through development, and pumpkin pie was reimagined countless times before a standard recipe emerged. By 1705, America still wasn't ready for the pie's popularity; when a molasses shortage occurred in Colchester, Connecticut, citizens postponed Thanksgiving until more molasses arrived and they could finally make pumpkin pie.

Today's pumpkin pie recipes differ greatly from those of the 1600s and 1700s. A 1653 recipe instructs "to boil the pumpkin in milk and strain it before putting it in a crust," while modern recipes typically rely on canned pumpkin, which wasn’t invented until 1929; a 1670s version of pumpkin pie also includes apples, rosemary, marjoram, and thyme.