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Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie made with boiled squash, brown sugar, eggs, molasses, butter, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

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

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the boiled squash, brown sugar, eggs, molasses, melted butter, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and milk. Mix until smooth and well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Bake

  1. Bake for 45-50 minutes or 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. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Boiled dry squash
Provides the main body and bulk of the filling, which sets into a soft custard.
Eggs
Set the filling as they cook, giving it structure and a firm, sliceable texture.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture, along with a deeper, caramel-like flavour.
Molasses
Adds dark sweetness and a robust flavour that deepens the spice notes.
Milk
Adds moisture and liquid that helps the custard bake smooth and creamy.
Melted butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken the filling as proteins coagulate with heat. Pulling the pie too early leaves it runny, while overbaking can make it cracked and grainy.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Clovefits about as well
  3. Cardamomfits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, molasses, butter, cinnamon, 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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