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Dessert

Squash Pie

A baked pie with a squash, milk, egg, and spice filling.

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

Squash Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Combine squash, milk, and beaten eggs in a bowl.

  2. Mix sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, flour, and salt in a separate bowl.

  3. Add the dry mixture to the squash mixture.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie pan with pastry.

  2. Sprinkle the bottom of the pastry with flour.

  3. Pour the mixture into the pastry shell.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 minutes.

  5. Reduce temperature to 350°F (175°C) and continue baking until the filling is 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 + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Nutmeg + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,324 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Nutmeg + flourtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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.
Squash
Provides the bulk, moisture and body of the filling.
Milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the custard become smooth and tender.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and aids browning at the surface.
Flour
Thickens the filling slightly so it holds its shape when cut.

The step that matters

Reduce the oven temperature after 10 minutes. Eggs in a custard set through gentle heat. Staying at 400°F would overcook the outside and can cause the filling to curdle or weep before the center sets.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cardamomfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

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