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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A baked pie with a pumpkin filling flavored with spices and fortified with sherry and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy 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

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar.

  2. Add the eggs and mix well.

  3. Stir in the stewed pumpkin, cream, sherry, brandy, nutmeg, cinnamon, mace, and salt.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a prepared puff pastry shell.

  2. Bake until set, about 30-40 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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Pumpkin + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,126 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the filling and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard.
Stewed pumpkin
Provides the bulk, flavour and moisture of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps tenderise its texture.
Cream
Adds richness and fat for a smoother, softer custard.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the creamed base.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as they heat, so underbaking leaves the filling runny while overbaking can make it cracked and rubbery. Check for a set centre rather than relying only on the time.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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