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Pumpkin Pie with Allspice & Ginger
½ t allspice 1 C milk 2 eggs 1 C pumpkin Mix together the dry ingredients and add eggs which have been beaten slightly. Then add pumpkin and milk. Line a pie plate with crust. Pour in above mixture and bake until a silver knife comes out clean when tested. 2/3 C sugar 1 T (heaping) flour 1 t salt 1/2 level t cinnamon ½ level t ginger
A plain, thin custard pumpkin pie of the kind that fills a single shallow shell. The original gives no oven temperature and lists its ingredients out of order, so read the whole thing before you start.
- Oven temperatureNone is stated. A common modern approach for a pumpkin custard in a raw shell is 425F for the first 15 minutes to set the bottom crust, then 350F for another 30 to 40 minutes until the knife test passes.
- The knife test"Comes out clean" is the period standard, but it overshoots slightly. Pull the pie when the outer inch is set and the centre still trembles; residual heat finishes the custard and prevents the watery cracks that come from overbaking.
- Allspice quantityThe allspice figure in the ingredient line is not a usable amount as printed. Judging by the cinnamon and ginger, a quarter to a half teaspoon is the intended range.
- PumpkinThis most likely means home-stewed and drained pumpkin or squash, which tends to be thicker than canned puree. Canned solid-pack pumpkin substitutes cup for cup; avoid "pumpkin pie filling," which is already sugared and spiced.
- Mixing orderThe dry ingredients are sugar, flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger and allspice; the flour is a heaping tablespoon and acts as insurance against a weeping custard. Whisk them together first so the spices do not clump when the liquid goes in.
- YieldOne cup each of pumpkin and milk with two eggs fills an 8-inch shell to a modest depth, or a 9-inch shell thinly. For a deep 9-inch pie, one and a half times the filling is closer.
- ServingCool completely before cutting. A warm pumpkin custard slices raggedly and tastes flatter than one that has sat two hours.
Church and society cook books like this one were assembled from members' handwritten cards, which is why the same dish can appear in three versions across a single volume. The filling itself is the frugal end of the pumpkin pie family: no cream, no molasses, no brandy, just milk, two eggs and two-thirds of a cup of sugar, with a heaping spoon of flour to hold the custard together. New England cooks had been baking pumpkin in a crust since the colonial period, and canned pumpkin is generally said to have become widely available by the end of the nineteenth century, so a recipe like this could be made from the pantry in any season rather than only after the autumn harvest.