Skip to main content
Dessert

Pumpkin Custard

A baked custard made with pumpkin, eggs, flour, brown sugar, spices, butter, milk, and topped with cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Ginger and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,324 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Custard

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 custard

  1. In a mixing bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, flour, brown sugar, ginger, nutmeg, melted butter, and milk. Mix until smooth and well combined.

  2. Pour the mixture into a baking dish.

  3. Sprinkle cinnamon on top.

Bake

  1. Bake for 30-40 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.

  1. Ginger + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Pumpkin + nutmegtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,126 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 into a firm, sliceable texture as they coagulate in the oven.
Pumpkin
Provides the main body, moisture and pumpkin flavour of the custard.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, helping the custard stay tender as it sets.
Flour
Thickens the custard slightly and gives it a more stable body.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and a deeper caramel-like flavour, and helps keep the custard moist.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel.

The step that matters

Bake until set, not until fully firm. Eggs set as their proteins coagulate with heat. Overbaking squeezes out liquid and makes the custard grainy and cracked, so pull it when the centre barely wobbles.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pumpkin, egg, flour, sugar, nutmeg, butter, milk):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits about as well
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pumpkin, egg, flour, sugar, nutmeg, butter, milk. 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.

More pumpkin custard recipes

Pie 6 See all 12 →

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesSoft Ginger BreadSoft Ginger Bread85 recipesCinnamon RollsCinnamon Rolls71 recipes