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Dessert

Pumpkin Puddings or Pies

A baked pumpkin mixture with brown sugar, sweet milk, butter, and spices, served in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Pumpkin Puddings or Pies

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a large bowl, combine the stewed pumpkin and brown sugar.

  2. Add the sweet milk and melted butter, mixing well.

  3. Season with nutmeg or cinnamon to taste.

  4. Pour the mixture into a pie crust or pudding dish and bake 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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Pumpkin + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Milk + nutmegtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together14,685 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + nutmegtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed pumpkin
Provides the bulk and moisture that give the filling its body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a caramel note while helping keep the filling moist.
Sweet milk
Adds liquid and creaminess that gives the filling a smooth, soft body.
Butter
Adds fat for a smooth texture and rich flavour.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The filling firms as it bakes and cools. Underbaking leaves a loose, runny center, while overbaking can make the texture dry or cracked.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, nutmeg. 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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