It should come as no surprise to anyone who, well, eats that bacon has ruled the food scene in recent years. For a while, it seemed bacon was in and on everything, from cupcakes to cornbread. But there's a new food in town, and its name is Pumpkin.
As New York Magazine recently pointed out, pumpkin is everywhere—in lattes, mass-market bagels, and high-end cocktails. Research firm Datassential even noted in their annual MenuTrends report that more than 60 pumpkin-related dishes appeared on the menus of America's top 250 chain restaurants in the last year, while pumpkin drink offerings increased a whopping 400 percent during the past five years! This seems to indicate that pumpkin popularity is not merely a seasonal phenomenon, but a sea change.
How is it that the lowly pumpkin managed to achieve such swift, startling popularity? Well, it's a bit of a marketing ploy, especially since pumpkin is often flavored with sugar and spices first:
As a marketing tool... pumpkin is perfectly pitched for today's eaters...A pumpkin dish, in the era of the locavore, has connotations of virtue--when you think of pumpkin, you think of something farm-grown and wholesome. That helps make it a permissible indulgence, even when what you're eating is mainly just sugar and spice. Never mind the recipe realities--savor those associations!
So, at least for restaurants, it's not pure pumpkin that has people in a tizzy. In fact, as New York Magazine notes, "pumpkin dishes don't even need any actual pumpkin in them in order to cash in on the warming, autumnal vibe." It's a feeling, an association.
Time will tell if pumpkin (or the idea of pumpkin, really) has the staying power of bacon. Not convinced? You could just combine them (!!) and call it a day.
Read More: Pumpkin Is the New Bacon | New York Magazine
Related: What Will Be the Next Bacon? Our Top 5 Trend Predictions
(Image: New York Magazine)
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No, pumpkin is not the new bacon. Pumpkin becomes popular every single year around Halloween through Christmas.
The Pumpkin obsession is a regular seasonal event. In a few months, nobody will even remember their pumpkin based foodstuffs until fall comes once again.
Bacon had no good explanation... (other than it was delicious)
I don't think pumpkin is the new bacon. Pumpkin has been on a low level rise for several years (yes, even during the non fall seasons), but I think that the arrival of fall has artificially made it feel like pumpkin finally broke through and made it big. In reality, it's just the fall rush, and it'll settle down and go back to being popular but not wildly popular.
Just my bad prediction.^_~
Pumpkin tends to be seasonal - I know I cook a lot of squashes through fall/winter (mostly from my mother-in-law's garden), but move to salads and fresh veggies through spring/summer.
Bacon, though.... Mmm. The smoked/salty/crispy mix works well against sweet and complementing savory, and that makes it pretty much all-purpose, and lovely.
No. It's a seasonal food that people only care about during Fall and Winter.
pumpkin is the bacon of fall
The love of pumpkin goes back centuries because this entirely American food reminds us of Thanksgiving and the time of harvest. People are into seasonal stuff and marketers are picking up on it.
By the way, a Pilgrim at Plymouth in 1630 penned this little poem:
Stead of pottage and puddings and custards and pies
Our pumpkins and parsnips are common supplies,
We have pumpkins at morning and pumpkins at noon,
If it were not for pumpkins we should be undoon.
Blech, I totally see pumpkin as the new bacon. EVERYTHING has a pumpkin version! Drives me crazy, I really don't like the pumpkin flavor, although the pumpkin SPICE flavor is okay in some things. There need to be more apple and butternut squash and other fall flavors out there!
Butternut squash > pumpkin.
Haha butternut = pumpkin! I made a butternut squash pie last year because I didn't want to screw around with real pumpkins. Nobody knew. I think Harry Potter has contributed to pumpkin's recent popularity. Really.
When people want pumpkin-flavored things in the dead heat of summer, then we can talk. Bacon is a year-round ingredient. Pumpkin is not, despite its increasing popularity.
No, bacon is pure meat perfection. Pumpkin is seasonal.