Pumpkin Pie (Use the recipe for squash pie)

This is a variation entry rather than a standalone recipe: it assumes the squash pie custard from the preceding page, which is the usual early-20th-century formula of about 1 1/2 cups cooked strained squash or pumpkin, 1 cup milk, 2 eggs, sugar, salt and spice in a single unbaked crust.

• The hingeThe added quarter cup of molasses makes the filling a little looser, so do not extend the baking to compensate. Pull the pie when the outer two inches are set and the center still trembles; a custard cooked until firm all the way across will weep and crack as it cools.
• OvenThe entry gives no oven direction at all; it relies on the squash pie recipe. For a modern oven, 450F for the first 10 minutes to set the pastry, then 350F for roughly 35 to 45 minutes, works well.
• "Omitting the flavorings"Whatever spice the squash recipe calls for is meant to be left out here, because the molasses is doing the flavoring. If you want a spiced pie, keep the spice and cut the molasses to two tablespoons so the two do not fight.
• MolassesUse unsulphured cooking molasses, not blackstrap, which is bitter and will dominate a quarter cup in a single pie. Reduce the sugar in the base custard by about two tablespoons to keep the sweetness in balance.
• The pumpkinField pumpkins are watery and stringy. Use a small sugar pumpkin, roasted and pressed through a sieve, or one 15 oz can of solid-pack pumpkin, which yields roughly 1 3/4 cups -- enough for a nine-inch pie, with a little over. Canned pumpkin pie filling is already sweetened and spiced and will not work here.
• Wet filling, raw crustChill the lined pan hard, or blind-bake it 10 minutes with weights, before the custard goes in. Nothing in the original protects the bottom crust.
• YieldNo yield is given; the squash pie it refers to would make one pie, six to eight servings. Serving it cool rather than hot suits the molasses flavor.