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Dessert

Squash or Pumpkin Pie

A baked pie made with squash or pumpkin, eggs, milk, sugar, molasses, butter, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger 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 ↓

Squash or Pumpkin Pie

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the baked squash or pumpkin with eggs, milk, sugar, molasses or syrup, and butter.

  2. Mix in cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, pepper, and salt to taste.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

  2. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until set.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  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
Coagulate as they bake, setting the custard into a sliceable structure.
Baked squash or pumpkin
Provides the main body, moisture and flavor of the filling.
Milk
Adds liquid and creaminess that gives the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the spices and savory notes of the squash.
Molasses or syrup
Adds extra sweetness, moisture and a deeper, caramel-like flavor.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs coagulate as the custard heats, firming the filling. Underbaking leaves it runny and wet, while overbaking can make it cracked, grainy or weepy.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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