Name: Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients: 1 pumpkin or squash; 1 quart milk; 3 eggs

Why it works: Pumpkin and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,404 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

1 pumpkin or squash
1 quart milk
3 eggs

Directions

Remove the seeds from the pumpkin or squash without scraping the inside.
Stew the pumpkin and strain it through a sieve or colander.
In a bowl, combine the strained pumpkin with the milk and beaten eggs.
Stir until the mixture is thick enough to stir rapidly.

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.

Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together1,404 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).
Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together88,785 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Pumpkin + eggtop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,985 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).