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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A baked pie with a pumpkin filling sweetened with brown sugar and molasses, spiced with ginger and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and cinnamon 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 quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pumpkin

  1. Wash and boil the pumpkin with the skin on until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Pass the cooked pumpkin through a sieve to remove lumps and seeds.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the pumpkin with brown sugar and molasses.

  2. Beat the eggs and mix them with the pumpkin mixture.

  3. Add milk, salt, and spices, and mix well.

Bake

  1. Line a pie plate with pastry, pour in the pumpkin mixture, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20 minutes.

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. Ginger + cinnamontop 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

Eggs
Set the filling as they heat, giving the pie a firm, sliceable custard structure.
Pumpkin
Provides the bulk, body, and earthy flavor of the filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess, keeping the custard soft and smooth.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture while balancing the pumpkin's flavor.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, deep caramel-like flavor, and a darker color to the filling.

The step that matters

Baking the pumpkin filling in the pastry. The eggs set as the filling heats, forming a firm custard. Too much heat or time can make the eggs curdle or weep, leaving a cracked or watery pie, so the filling should be baked only until it is just set.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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