Skip to main content
Dessert

Eggless Pumpkin or Squash Pie

A baked pie made with squash, sweet milk, molasses, sugar, spices, and a shortcrust crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Eggless Pumpkin or Squash 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.

Prepare the crust

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

  2. For the crust, mix flour, shortening, and salt until crumbly.

  3. Press the mixture into a pie dish to form the crust.

Make the filling

  1. Mash and strain the squash if desired, then combine with salt, sugar, milk, molasses, and spices.

  2. Dissolve the corn starch and baking powder in a little milk, then add to the squash mixture.

  3. Stir well and pour the filling into the prepared crust.

Bake

  1. Bake until set and lightly browned.

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 + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Clove + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

All-purpose flour
Forms the structure of the crust once combined with the shortening.
Shortening
Adds fat that keeps the crust tender and crumbly.
Squash
Provides the bulk and moisture of the filling.
Eggs (in the method)
Not in the record; omitted.
Corn starch
Thickens the filling so it sets when baked.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth and color to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set and lightly browned. The filling thickens mainly through starch gelatinization as it heats, so it needs enough time to set. Pulling it too early leaves a loose, runny center, while overbaking can cause cracking and a dry texture.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, milk, sugar, corn, molasses, cinnamon, nutmeg):

  1. Cardamomfits about as well
  2. Clovethe original
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, milk, sugar, corn, molasses, 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.

More pumpkin pie recipes

Eggless 15Filling 8 See all 403 →

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipes