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Dessert

To Make One Squash or Pumpkin Pie

A pie made from squash, milk, egg, milk crackers, sugar, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Henrietta Latham Dwight · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

To Make One Squash or Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Mix one cup of squash with one egg beaten.

  2. Add a cup and a half of sugar, one milk cracker rolled fine, half a teaspoon of ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg, a pinch of salt, and a dash of cayenne pepper, then mix well.

  3. Add half a cup of milk.

Bake

  1. Bake in either puff or plain pastry.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

333Calories
16 gProtein
16 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Cracker5 saltine crackers (15g)66
Nutmeg1 tsp ground (2.2g)12
Chili1 tsp (2.7g)8
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Cayenne1 tsp (1.8g)6
Black Pepper1 tsp ground (2.3g)6
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Pumpkinnot 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 Henrietta Latham Dwight. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Pepper + nutmegtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13,015 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

  5. Pepper + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

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

What each ingredient does

Squash
Provides the bulk, moisture and body of the pie filling.
Egg
Binds the filling and sets it into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling set into a smooth custard.
Sugar (in the method)
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly during baking.

The step that matters

Bake in pastry. The egg proteins in the filling set gently as they heat. Too hot an oven or too long a bake makes the custard curdle, weep or crack, so bake until just set.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pepper, milk, egg, cinnamon, nutmeg. 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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