Skip to main content
Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie made with squash, sugar, milk, butter, eggs, ginger, lemon extract, salt, and cracker crumbs.

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

Why it works: Ginger and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,154 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Squash 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 the squash

  1. Peel the squash, steam it until soft, and strain it.

  2. In a large bowl, combine the strained squash with sugar, ginger, salt, and finely rolled cracker crumbs.

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk and melt the butter in it.

  2. Gradually pour the milk mixture over the squash while stirring continuously.

  3. Once thoroughly mixed, add the beaten eggs and stir well.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into deep pie plates with a nice under crust.

  2. Bake at 350°F (175°C) 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 + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Squash
Forms the bulk of the filling and gives the pie its body and flavor.
Eggs
Set during baking to bind the filling into a firm, sliceable custard.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling become smooth and creamy.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and contributes to its browning and texture.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a smoother mouthfeel in the custard.
Cracker crumbs
Absorb liquid and help thicken the filling so it holds its shape.

The step that matters

Adding the milk mixture to the squash. Pouring the hot milk in slowly while stirring continuously keeps the mixture smooth and evenly blended. Adding the eggs only after the mixture is thoroughly combined and cooled slightly helps avoid scrambling them and gives a uniform set.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, butter, egg, lemon. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesGinger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipes