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Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie made with squash, apple, eggs, milk, rose water, sugar, spices, and a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. 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.

Prepare the filling

  1. Boil equal quantities of squash and apple until tender.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. In a bowl, combine the strained squash with 7 eggs and mix well.

  4. Add milk, rose water, sugar, and spices to taste.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Apple + rosetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Eggs
Set the filling into a sliceable custard as their proteins firm when heated.
Squash
Provides the bulk, moisture, and smooth body of the filling.
Apple
Adds moisture and body alongside the squash, softening as it cooks.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the custard tender rather than dry.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavor of the squash and spices.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The egg proteins coagulate as the pie heats and firm the filling. Underbaking leaves it loose and runny, while overbaking can make it curdle or weep, so check for a set centre rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, rose, sugar. 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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