Name: Pumpkin Piks
Ingredients: ¼ small pumpkin; 2 tablespoons butter; 1 cup cream or milk; 4 eggs; nutmeg to taste; ½ cup brandy; 4 egg whites

Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Pumpkin Piks

Ingredients

Directions

Stew and mash the pumpkin.
Add butter, cream or milk, beaten egg yolks, nutmeg, and brandy.
Mix well.
Fold in the frothed egg whites.
The pie is ready for use.

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.

Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Pumpkin + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,126 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,920 recipes

Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
Nutmeg + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,311 recipes

Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).
Butter + brandytop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together5,127 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, cream, egg, nutmeg, brandy):

Vanillafits better
Figfits better
Raisinfits better
Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, cream, egg, nutmeg, brandy. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.