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Dessert

Hasty Pumpkin Pie

A pumpkin pie made by boiling pumpkin in milk, then adding eggs, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pumpkin and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,404 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Hasty Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil the pumpkin in the milk until it swells.

  2. Let the mixture cool.

  3. Add the eggs, sugar, and any spices you choose.

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. Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  2. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Pumpkin + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,350 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Provides the bulk and flavor of the filling as it softens in the milk.
Milk
Forms the liquid base that cooks with the pumpkin and later sets with the eggs.
Eggs
Set the mixture into a custard that holds its shape when cooked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the pumpkin.

The step that matters

Let the mixture cool.. Adding eggs to a very hot mixture can make them scramble or curdle. Cooling the pumpkin and milk first helps the eggs blend in smoothly and set into an even, creamy custard.

Swap the pumpkin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar. 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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