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Pumpkin Sauce

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Ginger and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,038 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Pumpkin Sauce

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Cut the pumpkin into small pieces.

  2. Place the pumpkin in a pot with just enough water to prevent burning.

  3. Set the pot to stew slowly, stirring often with a wooden spoon.

  4. Cook until all the water has evaporated and the pumpkin turns a dull brown color.

  5. Sweeten with molasses and brown sugar, and season with a dash of ginger and clove.

  6. Let cool and store in a large tin milkpan.

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

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Pumpkin + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together736 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Molasses + clovetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,483 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Swap the pumpkin

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, sugar, ginger, clove):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, sugar, ginger, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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