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Dessert

Pumpkin Pies

A pie made from boiled pumpkin, cream, butter, sugar, eggs, spices, and optional brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

Pumpkin Pies

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil the pumpkin until soft and dry.

  2. While hot, add the cream, butter, sugar, and eggs.

Season and finish

  1. Let the mixture cool, then add cinnamon, nutmeg, and orange peel.

  2. If desired, add a splash of brandy.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

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

  5. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives it body and flavor.
Eggs
Set the filling into a firm, sliceable custard as they cook.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, leading to a smoother, softer texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the earthy pumpkin flavor.

The step that matters

Boil the pumpkin until soft and dry. Excess water in the pumpkin dilutes the custard and can stop it from setting firmly, leaving a watery or weeping pie.

Swap the orange

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against pumpkin, cream, butter, sugar, 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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