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Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie filled with mashed Hubbard squash, sugar, spices, and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Squash Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the squash

  1. Cut the Hubbard squash in half, scrape out the seeds, and peel one half.

  2. Steam or boil the squash until tender.

  3. Mash the squash until fine; you will need a heaping cup for the pie.

Make the filling

  1. Line a pie dish with pie crust and bake as directed for other pies.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolk with the sugar, ginger, salt, and hot milk, stirring constantly.

  3. Add the butter, hot mashed squash, flour, and nutmeg, and mix well.

  4. Beat the egg white until stiff and fold it into the mixture.

  5. Pour the filling into the pie pan, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Hubbard squash
Provides the main bulk and sweet, earthy flavor of the filling.
Egg yolk
Thickens the custard and enriches the filling as it sets.
Egg white
Beaten until stiff, it adds lightness and helps the filling rise and set airy.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly in the oven.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and creaminess and helps form the custard base.
Flour
Helps stabilize the filling so it holds its shape when set.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg white. Beaten egg white traps air that gives lightness; overmixing or deflating it while folding loses that air, leaving a denser, less risen filling.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, butter, flour, 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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