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Dessert

Pumpkin Pies

Pumpkin pies made with boiled pumpkin, cream, butter, sugar, eggs, spices, and lard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson." · From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Boil a pumpkin until soft and dry.

  2. While hot, add one pint of cream, half a pound of butter, one and a half pounds of sugar, and six eggs.

  3. When it has cooled, add cinnamon, nutmeg, and a little orange peel. (Brandy is an improvement.)

  4. Thicken one and a half pints of milk.

  5. When cold, add four beaten eggs, then add flour sufficient to make a batter.

  6. Set it aside to rise.

  7. When light, fry in boiling lard and serve hot.

Make the batter and fry

  1. Mix one pint of cream, three tablespoons of wine, half a pound of flour, six eggs (leaving out half the whites), and quarter pound butter.

  2. Fry thin.

  3. Let flour remain a short time on the fire, stirring constantly so it does not stick to the pan.

  4. Then pour it into a bowl, and let it get cold.

  5. Add six eggs, breaking one at a time, and beat until all are broken and the dough is quite light.

  6. Put a pint of lard in a pan, let it boil, then drop the batter in.

  7. When the fritters are brown and crisp, serve them hot and sprinkle with sugar.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1104Calories
29 gProtein
45 gFat
140 gCarbs

Counts 11 of 13 ingredients. The other 2 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 11 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Lard1 tbsp (12.8g)115
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Wine2 tbsp cooking wine (30ml)25
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0
Pienot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Gibson, Marietta Fauntleroy Hollyday, "Mrs. C. H. Gibson.". 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. See the original page.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the mixture and, when beaten, help the batter lighten and set.
Flour
Thickens the batter and gives it structure as it cooks.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture.
Pumpkin (in the method)
Supplies body and moisture to the mixture.
Milk
Adds moisture and helps form a smooth, thickened base.
Lard
Provides hot fat for frying, which crisps and browns the outside.

The step that matters

Drop the batter into boiling lard. The lard must be hot enough to set the outside of the batter quickly. If it is too cool, the fritters absorb excess fat and turn greasy instead of crisp and brown.

Swap the cinnamon

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

  1. Cinnamonthe original
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Capersfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, butter, sugar, milk, flour, egg, wine. 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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