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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A custard pie made with cooked pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, and spices, baked in a pastry crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,874 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. In a large bowl, combine the cooked pumpkin and salt.

  2. Add 1 quart of scalding hot milk and mix well.

  3. Stir in 1 quart of cold milk and mix again.

  4. Add all the spices and sugar, then the remaining milk.

  5. Finally, mix in the well-beaten eggs.

Bake

  1. Line four large pie plates with pastry and fill with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) until thick.

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. Clove + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Nutmeg + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,331 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Ginger + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Cooked pumpkin
Provides the bulk and body of the filling.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the custard its firm, sliceable texture.
Milk
Supplies moisture and, with the eggs, forms the custard base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the spices.

The step that matters

Adding the eggs last. Well-beaten eggs should be mixed in gently at the end so the filling is not overworked. Egg proteins set with heat, so the filling should be baked slowly and only until thick, which prevents a curdled or cracked custard.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, sugar, nutmeg, ginger, clove, allspice. 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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