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Dessert

Pumpkin or Squash Pie

A custard pie made with squash or pumpkin puree, eggs, milk, sugar, spices, and baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 ↓

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 squash

  1. Cut the squash into half-inch rings and remove the insides.

  2. Peel the skin and cut the squash into thin chips.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the squash chips and cold water; cook over low heat until soft and the water is evaporated.

  4. Press the cooked squash through a wire sieve and measure out 1 quart.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the squash puree, spices, and salt.

  2. In another bowl, beat the egg yolks with sugar and stir into the squash mixture.

  3. Add the milk and mix well.

  4. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff, then fold into the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Grease deep pie plates and line them with puff pastry.

  2. Pour the filling into the prepared pie plates and bake at 350°F (175°C) until light brown, about 30 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 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. Winter squash + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together21 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Winter squash + nutmegtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together13 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Winter squash + pumpkintop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together40 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Squash or pumpkin puree
Forms the bulk of the filling and provides the main body and flavor.
Eggs
Set the filling into a firm custard as they cook.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness and helps the custard stay smooth.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and softens the set custard texture.

The step that matters

Cooking the squash until the water evaporates. Excess water in the squash dilutes the custard, so it can stay loose or weepy after baking. Cooking the squash until dry concentrates its flavor and gives the filling a thick, stable base.

Swap the winter squash

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Winter squashthe original
  4. Lemonfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against pumpkin, milk, egg, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger. 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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