Costco Thanksgiving Pies, Classified

To quote cooking icon Ina Garten, store-bought is fine—and we’d argue that’s especially true on the biggest cooking holiday of the year, when your oven is occupied by a 16-pound bird and everyone’s favorite side dish. If you’re feeding a crowd on Thanksgiving (or you’ve been tasked with bringing dessert to a Friendsgiving), you’ll be tempted by Costco’s massive Kirkland Signature pies, each weighing over three pounds.

To help you figure out which one deserves a spot on your holiday dessert table, we sampled the retailer’s three most popular Thanksgiving pies — apple, pecan and pumpkin — in the Food & Wine office. While Costco suggests a serving size of 12 slices, we found that these colossal pies can be cut into squares to make at least 16 servings. That’s a whole lot of pie! Read on for our reviews of all three Thanksgiving pies, and maybe invest in some more Tupperware.

3. Kirkland Signature Pumpkin Pie

This single crust pumpkin pie was undeniably the steal of the bunch, at just $5.99 for 68 ounces. (If you’re feeding 12 people, that’s just over 50 cents per person) But we found the filling to be bland and a little watery, with one taster calling the texture “baby food-like.” The crust was exceptional, but our biggest issue with this pumpkin pie was the lack of pumpkin pie spice in the filling. “Where’s the spice? Where’s the love?” asked one taster. “I love a standard pumpkin pie, but this one was flavorless,” added another. “I’ve never wanted pumpkin spice added to anything, but it would have been welcome here.”

If you like a clean slice, it’s worth noting that this pie held its shape much better when sliced ​​than the apple and pecan, both of which turned into a cobbler situation once split.

2. Kirkland Signature Double Crust Apple Pie

At $12.99 for a whopping four pounds and 11 ounces, this double-crust pie was filled with cinnamon-spiced apples and decorated with eye-catching vents in the shape of a flower. It had our favorite crust of the three pies, thanks to a crunchy sugar topping that gave it a sparkling sheen and no soggy bottom in sight; one taster noted the pleasant “short” texture. What kept this pie from winning top honors? While we found the apple filling to have a nice tartness that balanced out the dessert’s sweetness, we didn’t love its sticky, syrupy texture.

Given its size, this apple pie didn’t really have a chance to hold together, but no points were deducted for this letdown. “I’m honestly more wary of an apple pie that doesn’t fall apart when you cut into it,” said one taster.

Our favorite: Kirkland Signature Pecan Pie

Weighing in at four pounds and six ounces, this decadent pie was the most expensive of the three, at $16.99, but we found it worth every penny. The crumbly crust was filled with a thick filling and a crown of sugary toasted pecans. Tasters noted the generous amount of pecans on top of the pie, which were perfectly toasted and buttery (pecans are actually the second ingredient on the list, after corn syrup). “I’m usually wary of pecan pie as it’s like eating sugar with pecans. This one wasn’t a sugar bomb and the pecans had a nice texture,” noted one taster. We also liked the crust’s crumbly filling with the gooey filling, which another compared to “graham cracker on top of pudding.”

The one downside: Most tasters thought the texture was so-so thick, and one taster even called it “sticky.” Another was disappointed that the pecans were not evenly distributed throughout the filling.

So is this the perfect pecan pie? No, but at under $2 per portion, it’s a deal no matter how you slice it.