while this season's politics and headlines may lead to heated exchanges over the Thanksgiving table we thought we'd ask Paul Solon to address a different controversy and serve up something a bit different okay there isn't pumpkin spice on that is there oh there is a Thanksgiving feast hold the turkey stuffing green beans sweet potato casserole a menu of just pumpkin spice popcorn pumpkin spice apple cider and Pie of course this is good sampling the spread at Baltimore spice Haven mccormic company on the 90th anniversary of pumpkin pie spice so you have that sweetness coming from the cinnamon you have that peppery kick from the ginger you have the nutmeg that brings its nuttiness and then you have all spice that has a little bit of everything and you also get the entire house smell like holiday mccormic Chef Hadar Cohen aaram says the blend was designed to make pies easier to cook this is about 2 TP total but nowadays just churn the spice with butter and smear it on anything crustini say I'm going to put a slice of green apple you can use any Apple you want one piece of Pudo and finish it with some Candi walnuts and that's it or Infuse a pumpkin cheesecake another way to maybe J things up a little bit change things out maybe try something new so something new but relying on something old pumpkin spices nostalgic appeal at a moment when Nostalgia for America's past seems especially strong Aroma is really much related to our memories maybe it brings back that Nostalgia and that warm fuzzy feeling of holiday maybe even Nostalgia for a time that's become myth since as you probably know whatever Mutual Thanksgiving there was at the iconic 1621 meal didn't exactly last no pie there either but the pilgrims were eating pumpkin from the get-go that was what sustained them over those first few years in those Winters especially when they didn't really have much of anything else they were eating uh just boiled pumpkin we met Marilyn food historian Joyce White at the Hammond Harwood House in Annapolis this kitchen dates to 1774 things like spices and sugar were still kept under lock and key by the Mistress of the household and every morning she would sort of Dole out what was needed for the day's recipes and what about pumpkin pies they were what marylanders at that time were uh calling Yankee food so it was not a popular uh dish it was advertised as animal F so there was a north south divide with regard to pumpkin pie absolutely it wasn't until after Abraham Lincoln read his Thanksgiving Proclamation after the Battle of Gettysburg in the fall of 1863 that Thanksgiving becomes a national holiday it wasn't until much later in the 19th century well after the Civil War that each region of the South adopts those Yankee Traditions um eventually because industrialization began to build a national Market a national economy your children are now going out to factories to work they're not staying on the farm and thus the spread of a new national holiday having this long weekend was a way for them to essentially come home and so the warm spices you know conjure up this image of the warm Hearth and Home so is that why or part of the reason why pumpkin spice is so popular I think the Allure of that nostalgic P that pumpkin pie spice conveys through Thanksgiving and through those dishes that we associate with that nostalgic past is certainly there in America today capitalizing on that nostalgic flavor Starbucks which poured its first pumpkin SP latte or PSL 20 years ago and hundreds of millions of psls later the drink's now a seasonal essential at caffeine haunts like black Acres Roastery in Baltimore's historic Lexington Market less than a mile from where McCormack first concocted pumpkin pie spice owner Travis Bell's Twist on the PSL is basic and bougie meaning the basics of the ugs and the flannel shirts but the bougie of the upscale luxury beverage that you'd want to get at a maybe another Cafe that I won't name oh bougie is in Bourgeois yes well I'm bouris for sure oh that kind of does taste like pumpkin pie so we use fresh made uh puree pumpkin and spices we steep that all together add some sweetness to it and that's our housemade syrup Bell named black Acres Roastery after the Civil War promise of a mule and 40 acres of Hearth and Home for the formerly enslaved and seeing what the history of that was in the plots of land in the South black green yellow acres is what they were called and so black Acres just kind of stuck out to me and so that's what I named but the formerly enslaved did not get their 40 acres in a mule correct you're not terribly nostalgic for the America that was no no I like the progression that we're making as a country yes so for Belle his Cafe and even a basic and bougie are ways to look ahead people are interested and what was and what could be and we try to bring what that drink is to the Modern Age hopefully building new memories for the people that are available now so I'm going to keep eating please building new memories with a taste of what is comforting about the past dessert at the Thanksgiving table for the PBS NewsHour Paul Salman stagging in Baltimore Maryland [Music] oh