Pumpkin Pie Spice: What’s in It, Where It Came From and How to Use It

An American cookbook printed in 1796 was already spicing “pompkin” pie with ginger, nutmeg and allspice, long before anyone sold the blend in a jar. Today pumpkin pie spice is a ready-mixed blend of ground baking spices, led by cinnamon, and it goes into everything from muffins to lattes. There’s still no standard recipe: the best-known commercial version is four spices with no cloves, while a widely shared extension recipe uses cloves and no allspice.

At a glance

What’s in it: named recipes side by side

US labels list ingredients in descending order of predominance by weight,⁵ so cinnamon is the biggest ingredient in McCormick’s blend and ginger comes second. The Oregon State recipe follows the same pattern: twice as much cinnamon as ginger, and four times as much cinnamon as either nutmeg or cloves.³

The two get their clove-like note from different places, McCormick from allspice and Oregon State from cloves. Allspice is a single spice, and it got its name because it tastes like a combination of cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. You’ll sometimes hear that cardamom and orange peel are usual additions. None of the sources above includes them.

Flavor

Pumpkin pie spice tastes sweet, warm and woody. Cinnamon leads, with ginger’s sharper bite, nutmeg’s rounder warmth, and a clove-like edge from cloves or allspice. Blends with cloves taste darker and more pungent, and blends heavier on ginger taste brighter. In a pie, the spices give a mild, sweet squash custard most of its character.

History: from 1796 to the latte

The spices are a lot older than the name. Amelia Simmons’s American Cookery, printed in Hartford in 1796, has two recipes for “pompkin” pie:⁶

Chowhound’s history of the blend calls Simmons’s book the first documented recipe to use the combination.⁷ We couldn’t confirm it was the very first, so we’re not claiming that.

The ready-mixed blend came much later. McCormick says its pumpkin pie spice has been “a McCormick original since 1934”,¹ and Chowhound gives the same year.⁷ A widely repeated story says the name “pumpkin spice” first appeared in a 1936 Washington Post recipe and that spice companies started selling the mix in the 1950s. We couldn’t find a source for either, and McCormick’s own date puts commercial blends at least two decades earlier.

Its second life started in coffee. Chowhound reports that pumpkin spice coffee beans showed up in the 1990s and that Starbucks launched its Pumpkin Spice Latte in the fall of 2003, citing an interview with Starbucks’ Peter Dukes.⁷

How to use it

McCormick suggests its blend for gingerbread cookies, pumpkin muffins, cobblers and pies; in lattes, smoothies, coffee and hot chocolate; on roasted sweet potatoes, carrots and acorn squash; in sweet potato casserole; and in pancakes, muffins and oatmeal. King Arthur suggests it for pies, scones, muffins and cakes.

For a pie recipe that lists the spices separately, King Arthur says to use an equal amount of the blend in place of the total amount of the individual spices.⁴ That’s the maker’s rule for its own blend, but it’s a fine starting point for others too.

Making your own

The Oregon State Extension recipe above is a published starting point: 2 tablespoons cinnamon, 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoons each nutmeg and cloves, mixed well and kept in a sealed, airtight container.³ Swap some or all of the cloves for allspice if you want something closer to McCormick’s.

Buying and storage

Compare blends by their ingredient lists. McCormick’s label also lists sulfiting agents,¹ so check if you avoid sulfites. No regulator or standards body publishes a shelf life for ground spice blends. Keep the jar sealed, cool and dark, and replace it when a pinch no longer smells strongly.

Safety

The main point is about cinnamon. Cassia cinnamon, the most common type sold in North America,⁸ has much more coumarin than Ceylon cinnamon. BfR gives about 3,000 mg/kg on average for cassia.² The European Food Safety Authority’s tolerable daily intake is 0.1 mg of coumarin per kg of body weight.⁹ BfR estimates a 60 kg adult hits that with about 2 g a day of average cassia, and a 15 kg child with about 0.5 g.¹⁰ The EU limits coumarin in traditional and seasonal bakery ware labeled as containing cinnamon to 50 mg/kg.¹¹ See Ceylon vs. cassia cinnamon.

Nutmeg can cause poisoning in large amounts, but the National Capital Poison Center says nutmeg and similar kitchen spices aren’t dangerous when used as recommended.¹² See too much nutmeg.

Health claims

NCCIH says research doesn’t clearly support using cinnamon for any health condition, and it’s unclear whether cinnamon supplements help with diabetes.⁸ For ginger, NCCIH reports it may help with nausea and vomiting in pregnancy, but most studies of ginger for motion sickness haven’t found it helpful.¹³ Those findings are about supplements, at doses far above a pinch in a pie. We’re not making any health claims for the blend.

Substitutes and related pages

See pumpkin pie spice substitutes for the ranked list. The sister blend is apple pie spice. For savory pumpkin dishes, see pumpkin soup spices and pumpkin seed spices. Individual spices: cinnamon, cassia cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves and mace. Overdid it? See too much cinnamon, too much clove or too much ginger.