Name: Pumpkin and Apple Pie
Ingredients: Pumpkin; Apples; Sugar; Ground allspice; Pie crust; Water

Why it works: Pumpkin and allspice work together. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 259 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Pumpkin and Apple 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 and assemble

Remove the rind, seeds, and puffy center from the pumpkin, then slice it thinly.
In a pie dish, layer the sliced pumpkin and apples alternately, sprinkling each layer with sugar and a pinch of allspice.
Add 3 to 4 tablespoons of water to the dish.

Bake and serve

Cover with pie crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 45 to 60 minutes.
Serve hot.

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.

Pumpkin + allspicetop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together259 recipes

Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Apple + allspicetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together998 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyl acetate (fruit).
Pumpkin + appletop 15% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together281 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-vinylphenol (clove, smoky).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Pumpkin + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,350 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Pumpkin: Provides the main bulk and soft, tender body of the filling.
Apples: Add tartness and firm pieces that hold some shape against the softer pumpkin.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the filling caramelize slightly as it bakes.
Pie crust: Encloses the filling and forms a sealed, golden top and base during baking.