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Dessert

Pumpkin Pikes

A pumpkin pie filling made with pumpkin, cream, butter, cinnamon, molasses, sugar, eggs, baked in a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Pumpkin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,744 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pikes

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, combine the cooked pumpkin, cream, salt, butter, cinnamon, molasses, and sugar, and beat the mixture thoroughly until well combined.

  3. Add the beaten egg yolks or whole eggs and mix well.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the filling into a prepared pie crust.

  2. Bake until set, then cool completely.

  3. Serve very cold with stiff, whipped cream.

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

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

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a sliceable custard when baked.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Pumpkin
Provides the bulk, moisture and flavor base of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps soften its texture.
Molasses
Adds deep sweetness and a rich, slightly bitter flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until set, then cool completely. Eggs thicken as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it cracked or grainy. Cooling completes the setting, so cutting too early gives a soft slice.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, cinnamon, molasses, sugar, egg. 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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