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Hubbard Squash Pie
Mix one cupful each of milk and dry steamed and sifted hubbard squash, one cup of sugar, two tablespoonfuls of melted butter, one even tablespoonful of ginger, two eggs slightly beaten, one teaspoonful of cinnamon and half a teaspoonful of salt. Pour into a pastry-lined plate and bake in a moderate oven for forty minutes. Nutmeg may be used in place of ginger and cinnamon.
A plain squash custard pie of the sort that filled the space between pumpkin and mince on a New England pie shelf. Two details in the original do most of the work: the squash must be dry, and the spicing is far heavier than a modern pumpkin pie.
- Dry steamed squash is the hingeSteam or bake the squash rather than boiling it, then press it through a sieve and let it drain or dry off over low heat until it holds a shape on the spoon. Watery squash gives a custard that never sets and weeps into the crust.
- Hubbard squashA large hard-shelled winter squash, still sold at farm stands but not in every supermarket. Kabocha, buttercup or a dense sugar pumpkin behave the same way; canned pumpkin puree works, though it is wetter and should be cooked down a little.
- A moderate ovenConventionally read as about 350-375F. A hotter start to set the pastry before dropping the heat is a modern option, not something the recipe calls for.
- That tablespoon of gingerA full even tablespoon of ground ginger with a teaspoon of cinnamon is a sharp, hot pie by current taste. Half that quantity gives something closer to what most people expect; the emphatic wording 'one even tablespoonful' suggests the amount was meant as written.
- Pastry-lined plateA single bottom crust; the recipe does not give a plate size, and the quantities suit a shallow eight- or nine-inch plate. The filling is thin, so fill it on a pulled-out oven rack to avoid slopping it over the rim.
- Judging donenessForty minutes is what the recipe gives, but test rather than trust the clock: the edge should be set and the centre still moving slightly as one mass when the plate is nudged. It firms as it cools.
- YieldOne pie, roughly six to eight slices depending on the plate. It cuts cleanly only once fully cool.
The Hubbard squash was established in New England by the middle of the nineteenth century and was valued as a winter keeper, its thick shell letting it sit for months in a cool cellar. Squash pie and pumpkin pie were often treated as interchangeable in American cookbooks of the period, and some writers preferred squash as drier and less stringy. A recipe like this one is essentially a sweetened custard carried by whatever orange-fleshed vegetable was to hand, which is consistent with the book offering nutmeg as a straight substitute for the ginger and cinnamon.