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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A custard pie made with pumpkin, eggs, butter, milk, sugar, and fortified with brandy and Madeira or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the pumpkin

  1. Cut the pumpkin into large pieces, peel them, and place in cold water over low heat.

  2. Simmer without boiling until tender, then strain through a colander and then through coarse muslin.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, mix the strained pumpkin with the beaten eggs, butter, and sugar until well combined.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie dish lined with pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) 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. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Butter + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,505 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Provides the bulk and body of the filling and its characteristic flavor.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the custard-like filling its structure.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
White sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown lightly as it bakes.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and softness, diluting the filling so it sets gently.

The step that matters

Bake until set, not overbaked. Eggs thicken as they heat, and overbaking past the set point makes a pumpkin custard curdle, crack, or turn grainy. Bake only until the center barely wobbles, since it firms further as it cools.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, butter, milk, sugar, brandy, sherry. 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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