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Pumpkin Pie (Cups steamed and strained)
1 1/2 cups steamed and strained pumpkin 1/2 teaspoon ginger 1/2 teaspoon salt 2/3 cup brown sugar 2 eggs 1 teaspoon cinnamon 1 1/2 cups milk 1/2 cup cream Mix ingredients in order given and bake in one crust.
A plain custard-style pumpkin filling with no oven temperature and no timing, which is typical of the period. The proportions are sound; only the baking needs translating.
- Steamed and strained pumpkinThis is plain cooked pumpkin flesh pressed through a sieve, not the spiced pie filling sold in cans. Unsweetened canned pumpkin purée substitutes directly, 1 1/2 cups by volume.
- Watch the moistureHome-steamed pumpkin holds much more water than canned purée. Let the strained pulp drain in a sieve or dry it briefly in a pan over low heat, or the custard will weep and the crust will go soft.
- OvenThe recipe gives neither temperature nor time. A workable modern schedule is about 425F for 15 minutes to set the pastry, then 350F for a further 35 to 45 minutes; the filling is done when the edges are firm and the centre still wobbles slightly as one mass.
- "Bake in one crust"A single bottom crust, no lid. The quantity here is more than a standard 9-inch shell will comfortably take, so use a deep-dish plate, or expect a little filling left over.
- Blind bakingThe original assumes a raw shell filled with liquid custard. Partially baking the crust for 10 minutes with weights before filling gives a markedly crisper base.
- Brown sugarPeriod brown sugar was generally less refined than modern brown sugar. Light brown sugar is the closest everyday match; dark brown will give a more assertive molasses note.
- Cream'Cream' here is unspecified and may have been thinner than modern heavy cream. Read as heavy cream, the 1/2 cup with the 1 1/2 cups milk gives about 2 cups of dairy at roughly the richness of half-and-half, so half-and-half throughout is a reasonable substitution.
- YieldOne 9-inch pie, six to eight slices. Cool completely before cutting; a warm custard pie slices badly.
Pumpkin baked in a crust is among the older American sweets, appearing in English and colonial receipts before 1800, and by the era of books like this one it had settled into a familiar formula: strained pumpkin, eggs, milk, sugar and warm spices in a single bottom crust. Steaming rather than boiling avoids waterlogging the flesh, though the recipe itself gives no reason for the choice. The modest spicing, ginger and cinnamon only, matches other turn-of-the-century domestic-science pumpkin pies.