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Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie made from cooked squash, sugar, spices, egg, butter, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

Squash Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the squash

  1. Wash and dry the squash, then cut it into slices and steam until tender.

  2. Rub the cooked squash through a colander.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine 3 tablespoons of squash with sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and salt.

  2. Beat the egg with the butter until creamy, then add to the squash mixture.

  3. Stir in enough hot milk to fill the pie plate and keep the mixture warm over boiling water.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie plate and bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Allspice + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Sets the filling into a custard as it bakes and adds richness.
Squash
Forms the body of the filling and gives it its main flavor and moisture.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the filling.
Milk
Provides the liquid that makes the filling pourable and creamy as it sets.

The step that matters

Baking until set. The egg proteins coagulate as the custard heats, so pulling it too early leaves a runny center, while overbaking can make it curdle or weep. Watch for a center that barely wobbles.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Clovefits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Marjoramfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, egg, butter, milk. 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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