Fwiw, I think that African Americans who I've met :o} are much more familiar with sweet potato pies than pumpkin pies. I definitely prefer sweetpotato pies to pumpkin pies-but maybe it's the flavoring and not the vegetable-or are pumpkin/sweetpotatos fruit?

Also, when I went to school near Newark, New Jersey in the mid 1960s I learned about another kind of pie-bean pies.

Here's a Wikipedia article about bean pies-

"A bean pie is a sweet custard pie whose filling consists of mashed beans, usually navy beans, sugar, butter, milk, and spices. Bean pies are commonly associated with soul food cuisine. Additionally, they are associated with the Nation of Islam movement: its messenger, Elijah Muhammad, encouraged their consumption in lieu of richer foods associated with African American cuisine, and the followers of the religion commonly sell bean pies as part of their fund-raising efforts."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bean_pie


Here's a bean pie recipe:

2 cups Navy Beans (cooked)
4 Eggs
1 14 oz. can evaporated milk

1 stick butter
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

2 T. Flour
2 cups Sugar
2 T. Vanilla


Cook beans until soft. Preheat oven. to 350 degrees.

In electric blender, blend beans, butter, milk, eggs, nutmeg and flour about 2 minutes on medium speed. Pour mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add sugar and vanilla. Mix well. Pour into pie shells. Bake about one hour. until golden brown. Makes 2 or 3 Bean Pies.

Tip: 5 minutes after removing pies from oven, cover with plastic wrap that clings.

http://www.muhammadspeaks.com/Pie.html

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I've never baked a bean pie. But I like them. They remind me much more of sweet potato pies than pumpkin pie. But all three of these pies look the same to me.

{which is a bit of a joke, if you get my drift}