Name: Pumpkin Pie
Ingredients: 1 quart stewed pumpkin; 1 quart rich milk; 5 eggs, beaten lightly; 1 tablespoon ginger; 1 tablespoon cinnamon; 1 grated nutmeg; 3 teacups sugar; 1 teaspoon salt; Pie crust

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

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

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Make the filling

In a large bowl, combine the stewed pumpkin, rich milk, beaten eggs, ginger, cinnamon, grated nutmeg, sugar, and salt. Mix well until all ingredients are combined.
Pour the mixture into a deep pie crust.

Bake

Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

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.

Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together11,917 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together6,380 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
Pumpkin + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,744 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,324 recipes

Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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

Eggs: Set the custard so the filling firms up when baked.
Stewed pumpkin: Provides the bulk, moisture and flavor base of the filling.
Rich milk: Adds liquid and richness, helping the filling become smooth and creamy.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the spices.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Eggs thicken as the custard heats; underbaking leaves a runny filling, while overbaking can cause cracking and a grainy texture.

Swap the pumpkin

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Lemonfits better
Pumpkinthe original

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