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Dessert

Squash or Pumpkin Pie

A baked pie made with steamed squash, brown sugar, eggs, milk, butter, ginger, cinnamon, and pie pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Squash or Pumpkin Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the squash

  1. Cut the squash in several pieces and remove the seeds, leaving the skin on.

  2. Steam the squash until cooked, then scrape it from the rind and press it through a colander.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the squash with the brown sugar, salt, ginger, and cinnamon.

  2. Soften the butter and mix it in with the squash mixture, then add the egg yolks.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold them into the batter.

  4. Add the milk and mix well.

Bake

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie pastry that has been pricked to prevent air bubbles.

  3. Bake for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350°F (175°C) to finish baking.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Winter squash + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Winter squash + gingertop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together16 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and set the custard; whipped whites lighten the filling and add structure.
Winter squash
Provides the main body, moisture and flavour of the filling.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel-like depth to the filling.
Milk
Adds liquid that, with the eggs, sets into a smooth custard.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smooth, tender texture.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Whites are whipped to stiff peaks to trap air that lightens the filling. Folding gently keeps that air in; stirring hard deflates the foam and can leave a dense, heavy pie.

Swap the winter squash

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg, milk, butter, ginger, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Winter squashthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, milk, butter, ginger, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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