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Pumpkin or Squash Custard Pie
1¼ cups cooked sifted pumpkin or squash 1¼ cups Karo, Orange or Blue Label 3/4 teaspoon salt 2 eggs 1 tablespoon Argo or Kingsford's Cornstarch 1¼ cups rich milk 1¼ teaspoons cinnamon 1/3 teaspoon ginger Flaky Pie Crust Line a deep pie plate with the crust, fluting the edge. Combine all the other ingredients, pour into the plate and bake until firm in the center, in a moderate oven, 350 to 375 degrees F.
A corn-syrup-sweetened pumpkin custard from a Corn Products Refining Company booklet, so every branded ingredient is one of theirs. The measurements printed as "11/4" are 1 1/4 cups throughout.
- The hinge: bake to set, not to timeA custard pie is done when the outer two inches are firm and the center still wobbles slightly; it finishes setting as it cools. Carried to "firm in the center" in the oven, the eggs curdle and the filling weeps.
- Karo Orange and Blue LabelThese were Karo's color-coded grades of corn syrup. Light (white) corn syrup gives a mild, clean sweetness; a darker grade brings more caramel and molasses character. Either modern light or dark corn syrup works, and 1 1/4 cups of it is the entire sweetener here.
- Argo or Kingsford's cornstarchPlain cornstarch, unchanged. One tablespoon is insurance against a loose custard, given how much liquid syrup goes in.
- Oven and timeThe recipe already gives numbers: 350-375F. Expect 45 to 60 minutes in a deep plate. Many modern pie recipes start hotter to set the crust and then drop the heat, but this recipe calls for a single moderate oven throughout.
- "Rich milk"Whole milk at minimum; the period term suggests milk with some cream in it rather than skimmed. Half whole milk and half light cream is a reasonable reading of the intent.
- Cooked sifted pumpkinPumpkin or squash boiled or baked, drained, and pushed through a sieve. Canned solid-pack pumpkin substitutes directly, but drain any pooled liquid, as a wet purée plus 1 1/4 cups syrup makes a filling that will not set.
- Soggy bottomA very wet filling in an unbaked shell needs help. Bake on a preheated sheet or a stone on the lowest rack so the base gets direct heat.
- YieldOne deep pie, roughly a 9-inch plate on the volume of filling, six to eight servings. Cool completely before cutting; refrigerate leftovers, as this is an egg-and-milk custard.
This comes from one of the promotional cookbooks issued by the Corn Products Refining Company, the maker of Karo syrup, Argo and Kingsford's cornstarch and Mazola oil. Such booklets were widely distributed in the early twentieth century, and their purpose shows in the recipes: sugar is replaced entirely by corn syrup, and cornstarch appears where a plain custard would need none. Karo was introduced in the first decade of the 1900s and marketed hard as a modern, economical sweetener, and its makers pushed it into the whole American baking repertoire, pumpkin pie included. The dish itself is older than the booklet by centuries in spirit: New England cooks were baking spiced pumpkin custards in pastry from the colonial period, and the pairing of pumpkin with cinnamon and ginger was settled long before canned purée or bottled syrup existed. What is distinctly modern here is the confidence with which the recipe names an oven temperature in degrees, a habit that only became general once household ovens carried thermostats.