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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A baked pie made with mashed squash, molasses, milk, sugar, eggs, spices, and a crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the squash

  1. Peel and cut the squash into pieces.

  2. Stew the squash in 1 quart of water until tender in a covered kettle.

  3. Mash the squash and let it simmer until rather dry.

  4. While simmering, add ½ cup molasses and 1 teaspoon salt.

  5. Rub the mixture through a fruit strainer or sieve.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, heat the sugar and eggs together, then add the mashed squash, sweet milk, cinnamon, and ginger.

  2. Pour the mixture into a deep pie crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Grate a little nutmeg over the top.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

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 + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  3. Pumpkin + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,158 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Squash
Forms the main body and bulk of the filling once mashed and dried.
Eggs
Help the filling set into a firm, sliceable custard when baked.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the squash's earthy flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth of flavor, and darker color to the filling.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the custard a smooth, tender texture.
Cinnamon
Adds warm aromatic spice that complements the squash.

The step that matters

Simmer the squash until rather dry. Excess water in the mashed squash dilutes the custard, so it may not set firmly and can become runny or soggy after baking. Drying it first concentrates the flavor and keeps the filling thick.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, coffee, milk, sugar, cinnamon, egg, ginger):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, coffee, milk, sugar, cinnamon, egg, ginger. 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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