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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream

A pumpkin-based pie filled with eggs, molasses, milk, and spices, baked in a pastry crust and served with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 with Whipped Cream

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 pumpkin

  1. Peel and cut the pumpkin into pieces, removing seeds.

  2. Boil or steam the pumpkin until tender, then mash it and place in a large shallow saucepan.

  3. Allow the pumpkin to dry out on the coolest part of the range without burning.

Make the filling

  1. To the condensed pumpkin, add the beaten eggs, salt, molasses, and scalded milk.

  2. Add sugar to taste and spices (cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg) as desired.

Bake and serve

  1. Line deep pie dishes with pastry, fill with the pumpkin mixture, and bake at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Serve very cold, piping whipped cream around the pie just before serving.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

What each ingredient does

Pumpkin
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the pie its body and flavour.
Eggs
Set the custard as they bake, giving the filling structure and a sliceable texture.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, and helps form a smooth, creamy custard.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, depth and a dark colour to the filling.

The step that matters

Drying the pumpkin purée. Excess water in the pumpkin makes the filling loose and watery, so it may not set firmly. Drying it over gentle heat concentrates the flavour and thickens the base, but it must not scorch.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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