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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie, Without Eggs

A pumpkin pie made without eggs, using stewed pumpkin, milk, molasses or brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon or nutmeg, baked at 350°F.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Pumpkin Pie, Without Eggs

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 ↓

Pumpkin Pie, Without Eggs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderately slow oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Press the stewed pumpkin through a colander.

  2. Mix in the milk until the mixture is moist enough to fill two pie plates.

  3. Add the salt, molasses or brown sugar, ginger, and cinnamon or nutmeg.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into two earthen pie plates.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 45 minutes.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Pumpkin + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Pumpkin + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,158 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Molasses + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,928 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed pumpkin
Provides the main body and bulk of the filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness so the filling sets smoothly in the oven.
Molasses or brown sugar
Adds sweetness and deep flavor, and helps the filling brown slightly.
Ground ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma that balances the sweetness of the pumpkin.

The step that matters

Mix in the milk until the mixture is moist enough to fill two pie plates. Pumpkin varies in water content, and the milk sets the filling's texture. Too little liquid makes a dense, dry custard, while too much makes it runny and slow to set during baking.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, molasses, 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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