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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A pie made with steamed pumpkin, eggs, sugar, spices, brandy, and hot milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. 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.

Prepare

  1. Steam the pumpkin and then dry it in the oven.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the steamed pumpkin, beaten eggs, sugar, salt, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, brandy, and hot milk.

  2. Strain the mixture to remove any lumps.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a pie crust.

  2. Bake for at least 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

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

  5. Clove + peppertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together17,451 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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, along with its flavor and color.
Eggs
Set during baking to give the custard-like filling its structure.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the spices and savory notes of the filling.
Hot milk
Adds moisture and richness, giving the filling a smooth, creamy texture.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture. Straining removes lumps of egg and pumpkin so the filling bakes smooth and even. Lumps left in will not break down during baking and can leave a grainy texture.

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, ginger, clove, cinnamon, pepper, brandy):

  1. Lemonfits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Pumpkinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, ginger, clove, cinnamon, pepper, brandy. 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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