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Dessert

Pumpkin Pies

A baked pumpkin custard filling in a thin crust made from Indian meal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,374 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pies

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

  1. Grease the brown earthen pan.

  2. Sift Indian meal into the pan to a thickness of ¼ inch.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine prepared pumpkin, milk, sweetening, ground rice, and orange oil.

  2. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared pan.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven 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. Milk + ricetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

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

  2. Pumpkin + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together338 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-acetyl-1-pyrroline (popcorn, roasted).

  3. Pumpkin + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Milk + orange oiltop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Rice + orange oiltop 38% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Indian meal
Forms the base layer that gives the pie a firm, grainy crust.
Prepared pumpkin
Provides the main body and flavour of the filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling become creamy.
Ground rice
Thickens the filling so it sets rather than staying loose.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Starches and proteins in the filling thicken as they heat. Removing the pie too early leaves a loose, runny centre, while over-baking can make it dry or cracked.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, rice, orange oil):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Orangefits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, rice, orange oil. 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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