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Dessert

Carrot Pie

A baked pie with a carrot, egg, milk, and spice filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Carrot 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 bowl, combine the boiled and mashed carrots, eggs, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and ginger. Mix until well combined.

Bake

  1. Line 2 small pie plates with pie crust.

  2. Pour the carrot mixture into the crusts.

  3. Bake for 30-35 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. 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. Carrot + gingertop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  4. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Carrot + cinnamontop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together981 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

What each ingredient does

Carrots
Provide the main body and bulk of the filling, along with sweetness and flavour.
Eggs
Set the filling as they heat, giving it a firm, sliceable custard-like texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps the filling become smooth and tender when baked.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as they heat, so the filling needs to reach a set state. Underbaking leaves it runny and wet, while overbaking can make it dry, cracked, or rubbery.

Swap the carrot

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Arrowrootfits about as well
  3. Parsnipfits about as well
  4. Carrotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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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