New England Squash Pie (Lydia Maria Child, 1832)
The old Yankee custard pie made with roasted winter squash instead of pumpkin, cooked with milk, sweetened with molasses and a little sugar, spiced with plenty of cinnamon and ginger, and baked in an open crust.
In old New England, "pumpkin pie" and "squash pie" were the same recipe. Lydia Maria Child's "The American Frugal Housewife" (Boston; Project Gutenberg's text is from 1832) heads it "Pumpkin and Squash Pie": stew and strain the pumpkin or squash, stir it into milk until thick, use three eggs to a quart of milk for everyday pies (and more for richer ones, since "the more eggs, the better the pie"), sweeten with molasses or sugar, and season with salt, a lot of cinnamon, ginger and grated lemon peel; she says squash pies are baked in deep plates without an upper crust. She adds that the part nearest the seeds is the sweetest and should not be scraped away, and that boiling the milk with the strained pumpkin improves the flavor. Amelia Simmons's 1796 "American Cookery" already treats winter squash and "pompkins" as interchangeable in her crookneck squash pudding. Winter squash such as Hubbard and butternut still go into New England pies, often described as milder and more delicate than pumpkin.
🇺🇸 This one is American
The old Yankee custard pie made with roasted winter squash instead of pumpkin, cooked with milk, sweetened with molasses and a little sugar, spiced with plenty of cinnamon and ginger, and baked in an open crust.
🇬🇧 The original
The English original is a lidded pie of sliced pumpkin layered with apples, herbs and spice, a 1600s recipe from Hannah Woolley. See the Pumpion Pie (Hannah Woolley's 17th-Century English Pumpkin Pie) recipe.
📖 Myth check: Is Canned Pumpkin Really Squash? →
Why it works the kitchen science
Simmering the squash in the milk
Child found the pumpkin swells and absorbs more milk when they boil together; the starch in the squash thickens slightly, so the custard is smoother and the pie less watery.
Very hot, then low
15 minutes at 450°F sets the unbaked crust before the custard soaks it; 325°F then cooks the custard gently.
Step by step
- Step 1
Heat the oven to 400°F. Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds (leave the flesh near them, which Child calls the sweetest part), set cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast 45 to 50 minutes, until very soft. Scoop out the flesh and press it through a strainer or puree it until smooth. Measure 1 3/4 cups.
- Step 2
While the squash roasts, make the crust as in our Classic American Pumpkin Pie recipe, step 1, and chill it 30 minutes. Roll it to a 13-inch circle, fit it into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and crimp a high edge. Refrigerate until the filling is ready.
- Step 3
Child's trick: in a saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk and squash to a simmer, stirring, and let it bubble gently 2 minutes. Take off the heat and whisk in the molasses, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt and lemon zest. Cool 15 minutes.
- Step 4
Raise the oven to 450°F with a rack in the lower third. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the warm squash mixture a little at a time. Pour into the unbaked crust.
- Step 5
Bake 15 minutes at 450°F, then lower the oven to 325°F and bake about 40 minutes more, until a knife inserted 1 inch from the center comes out clean, the center still wobbles slightly and reads 170°F to 175°F.
- Step 6
Cool on a rack at least 3 hours. Serve with whipped cream or plain, then refrigerate leftovers, covered, for up to 4 days.
New England Squash Pie (Lydia Maria Child, 1832)
Serves 8 · one 9-inch deep-dish pie · 2 hr 20 min total
Squash
- 1 butternut or small Hubbard squash (about 2 1/2 lb), to give 1 3/4 cups (400 g) puree
Crust
- 150 g (1 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 113 g (1/2 cup) cold unsalted butter, diced
- 59 g (1/4 cup) cold water, plus more as needed
Filling
- 2 cups whole milk
- 3 large eggs
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp salt
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon
Method
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Halve the squash, scoop out the seeds (leave the flesh near them, which Child calls the sweetest part), set cut side down on a parchment-lined baking sheet and roast 45 to 50 minutes, until very soft. Scoop out the flesh and press it through a strainer or puree it until smooth. Measure 1 3/4 cups.
- While the squash roasts, make the crust as in our Classic American Pumpkin Pie recipe, step 1, and chill it 30 minutes. Roll it to a 13-inch circle, fit it into a 9-inch deep-dish pie plate and crimp a high edge. Refrigerate until the filling is ready.
- Child's trick: in a saucepan over medium heat, bring the milk and squash to a simmer, stirring, and let it bubble gently 2 minutes. Take off the heat and whisk in the molasses, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt and lemon zest. Cool 15 minutes.
- Raise the oven to 450°F with a rack in the lower third. Whisk the eggs in a large bowl, then whisk in the warm squash mixture a little at a time. Pour into the unbaked crust.
- Bake 15 minutes at 450°F, then lower the oven to 325°F and bake about 40 minutes more, until a knife inserted 1 inch from the center comes out clean, the center still wobbles slightly and reads 170°F to 175°F.
- Cool on a rack at least 3 hours. Serve with whipped cream or plain, then refrigerate leftovers, covered, for up to 4 days.
Adapted from "Pumpkin and Squash Pie" in Lydia Maria Child, "The American Frugal Housewife" (Project Gutenberg text of the 1832 edition). Child gives ratios, not amounts; we scaled her quart-of-milk spice and salt amounts to 2 cups of milk and used 3 eggs for 2 cups (the richer end of her range). The molasses-and-sugar split and the squash amount are ours. The bake schedule and the knife test follow Yankee Magazine's "Maple Squash Pie" (August 7, 2008:), whose full ingredient list did not display for us. The crust is King Arthur's single crust. Project Gutenberg. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
Tips
- Child says ginger alone will do for spice "if you use enough of it".
- For a maple version, Yankee Magazine's pie uses maple syrup with sugar; swap the molasses for maple syrup (our suggestion based on it).
- Hubbard squash is drier than butternut; if your puree looks wet, cook it in a skillet for a few minutes to thicken it.
- Leftover roasted squash keeps 4 days in the refrigerator.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- Squash pie is just pumpkin pie with a different label. Documented for 1832: Child gives one recipe for both. Today many New Englanders say squash pie is milder and more delicate (food writers, recipe headnotes), which is taste, not history.
- Don't put a top crust on a squash pie. Documented as Child's instruction (deep plates, no upper crust), unlike the lidded English pumpion pie (our Pumpion Pie recipe).
- Molasses, not sugar. Folklore: Child allows either; Simmons's second pompkin pie uses molasses.
- More eggs make a better pie. Documented as Child's opinion ("the more eggs, the better the pie"), not a rule.
Every other pumpkin dessert
Pumpion Pie (Hannah Woolley's 17th-Century English Pumpkin Pie)
Before the custard there was this: slices of squash browned in butter and baked under a pastry lid with tart apples, raisins, currants, sugar, spice and a splash of sherry, adapted from a 1670s English recipe.
Calabaza en Tacha (Mexican Candied Pumpkin in Piloncillo)
Wedges of whole pumpkin, skin and all, simmered for two hours in a dark syrup of piloncillo, cinnamon and orange until they turn deep brown and glossy, the candied pumpkin of Mexico's Day of the Dead.
Doce de Abóbora em Calda (Brazilian Pumpkin Cubes in Syrup)
Neat cubes of pumpkin soaked briefly in limewater, then simmered for two hours in a light sugar syrup and left to steep overnight, so they turn glassy and sweet while staying firm, the Brazilian way.
Kabak Tatlısı (Turkish Candied Pumpkin with Tahini and Walnuts)
Thick blocks of pumpkin layered with sugar and left overnight to make their own syrup, then baked until candied and served cool with crushed walnuts and a drizzle of tahini, no water added.
Kabocha Purin (Japanese Kabocha Pudding with Caramel)
Japan's custard pudding made with sieved kabocha squash, baked in a water bath over dark caramel, chilled and turned out so the caramel runs down the sides.
Sangkhaya Fak Thong (Thai Coconut Custard Steamed in a Whole Squash)
A small kabocha hollowed out, filled with coconut cream, palm sugar and egg custard scented with pandan, steamed until set, chilled and cut into wedges that show a yellow custard heart in an orange shell.
Classic American Pumpkin Pie
The Thanksgiving pie: a smooth custard of pumpkin puree, eggs, heavy cream, sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a par-baked all-butter crust, pulled from the oven while the center still wobbles.
Southern Sweet Potato Pie
Silky sweet potato custard made with brown sugar, butter, sour cream, extra yolks, cinnamon, nutmeg and an optional splash of bourbon, baked in a crust lined with a thin layer of caramelized brown sugar.
Pumpkin Chiffon Pie
All the spice of pumpkin pie in a light, mousse-like filling: a cooked pumpkin custard set with gelatin and folded with whipped cream, piled into a toasted walnut and graham cracker crust and chilled, no baking of the filling.
Pumpkin Bread (Chocolate Chip Quick Bread)
King Arthur's super-moist oil-based pumpkin quick bread, made with canned pumpkin, nutmeg and vanilla, studded with chocolate chips and baked in one loaf pan.
Crustless Pumpkin Pie Cups
Classic pumpkin pie filling baked without the crust in six ramekins in a water bath, so it is in the oven in 10 minutes and ready in about 45, with the silky texture of the pie and none of the rolling.
Spiced Pumpkin Loaf with Pepitas, Inspired by Starbucks
A tender, heavily spiced pumpkin loaf sweetened with sugar and honey, scented with cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger and topped with crunchy pepitas, in the style of the coffee-shop pumpkin loaf. Inspired by, not official.
Meatballs of the World
Italian-American Meatballs
Big, tender meatballs braised for an hour in red sauce over spaghetti. The one most Americans grew up with.
Pallottine (Abruzzo Meatballs)
Tiny meatballs, smaller than a marble, tossed right through square spaghetti alla chitarra. No bread at all.
Swedish Meatballs (Köttbullar)
Small, soft meatballs browned in butter, in a cream sauce made from the same pan, with lingonberry jam on the plate.
Danish Frikadeller
Pork meatballs shaped with a spoon and fried slowly in butter, crusty outside and soft in the middle.
Königsberger Klopse
German meatballs that are never fried: poached, then served in a creamy white sauce with capers.
Spanish Albóndigas in Almond Saffron Sauce
The tapas bar classic: small meatballs in a golden sauce thickened with fried almonds and bread.
Mexican Albóndigas with Chipotle and Mint
Soft meatballs with rice and fresh mint inside, simmered in a smoky tomato and chipotle broth.
Izgara Köfte (Turkish Grilled Meatballs)
Small, flat meatballs kneaded hard, rested cold, and charred on a hot grill pan.
Lion's Head Meatballs
Big, soft pork meatballs, stirred into a sticky paste, fried to set, then braised in a savory sauce.
Chicken Tsukune
Japan's chicken meatball: kneaded sticky, grilled on skewers, glazed with sweet soy tare, dipped in egg yolk.