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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A baked pumpkin custard filling in a pie crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Allspice and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,620 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°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 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine pumpkin, sugar, eggs, salt, allspice, ginger, molasses, milk, and cream, and mix until smooth and well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until set.

  2. Serve with whipped cream on top.

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. Allspice + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,620 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

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

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

  4. Sugar + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Pumpkin + allspicetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together259 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

Eggs
Set the filling into a firm custard as they cook.
Pumpkin
Provides the main body and flavor of the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices.
Milk
Adds moisture and creaminess to the custard.
Cream
Adds richness and a smoother, silkier texture.
Molasses
Adds depth, color and a hint of bitter-sweet flavor.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs set as they heat, so pulling the pie too early leaves a runny center, while overbaking can make the custard curdle, crack or turn grainy. Check that the center barely wobbles before removing it.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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