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Dessert

Pumpkin Pie

A custard pie made with pumpkin, milk, sugar, spices, egg, and optional molasses.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Combine pumpkin, milk, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, salt, and egg in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over boiling water until the mixture thickens.

Bake

  1. Pour the filling into pie crusts.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Allspice + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Cinnamon + allspicetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,536 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg
Sets the filling into a firm custard as it heats and thickens.
Pumpkin
Provides the bulk, moisture and flavor base of the filling.
Milk
Adds liquid and richness, helping the custard become smooth and creamy.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the spices.

The step that matters

Heating the filling until it thickens. Egg proteins set gradually as they warm. Heating gently over boiling water and stopping once the mixture thickens keeps the custard smooth; overheating can curdle it or leave it grainy.

Swap the pumpkin

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

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

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