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Dessert

Pumpkin and Squash Pie

A baked pie made with stewed pumpkin or squash, milk, eggs, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,536 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin and Squash Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA warm oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pumpkin

  1. Remove the seeds from the pumpkin or squash without scraping the inside.

  2. Stew the pumpkin and strain it through a sieve or colander.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the stewed pumpkin, milk, and beaten eggs until thick.

  2. Sweeten with molasses or sugar, then add salt, cinnamon, ginger, and grated lemon peel.

  3. If desired, add ground allspice and lemon juice to taste.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into deep plates or shallow dishes and bake for about 1 hour in a warm oven at 350°F (175°C) without an upper crust.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Ginger + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard as it bakes.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, forming the smooth custard body with the eggs.
Pumpkin or squash
Provides the main bulk, moisture, and flavor of the filling.
Molasses or sugar
Adds sweetness and depth, and helps the custard brown slightly as it bakes.

The step that matters

Straining the stewed pumpkin. Straining removes excess water and fibers, so the filling sets into a smooth, dense custard rather than a watery or stringy one.

Swap the lemon

The recipe marks lemon as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, egg, pumpkin, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, pumpkin, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, allspice. 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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