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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A pumpkin pie with a puff pastry crust filled with pumpkin, milk, butter, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine mashed pumpkin, rich milk, melted butter or cream, flour, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract, lemon extract, and sugar. Mix until well combined and smooth.

Make the crust

  1. For the puff paste, mix lard and a little salt with flour. Add cold water gradually until the mixture holds together.

  2. Shape the paste for your pie tin and brush with egg white.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the pumpkin mixture into the prepared crust.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until the crust is a rich brown.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  4. Pumpkin + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,744 recipes

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

  5. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 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

Mashed pumpkin
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the pie its body and flavor.
Eggs (in the method)
Not listed in the record; left out.
Lard
Shortens the puff paste, keeping it tender and flaky when baked.
Flour
Adds structure to the filling and to the paste, helping both hold their shape.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown slightly as it bakes.
Rich milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling set into a smooth custard.

The step that matters

Add cold water gradually to the paste. Adding water slowly and only until the dough holds together keeps the paste from becoming tough. Too much water develops gluten and makes the crust dense rather than tender and flaky.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, butter, flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, butter, flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla. 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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