Ingredients:

• 2 cups cushaw
• ¼ cup sugar
• 2 cups heavy whipping cream
• 4 eggs
• 2 teaspoons flour
• 5 teaspoons cinnamon
• 5 teaspoons nutmeg

Instructions:

• Mix flour with sugar, nutmeg and cinnamon. Add to cushaw.
• Beat eggs separately with salt until smooth. Add to cushaw.
• Add milk in portions to cushaw. Mix well.
• Pour custard in a casserole (or in pie shells)
• Bake at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Reduce to 350 degrees and bake until cushaw is set.
• Cool and sprinkle the top with cinnamon or nutmeg

Comments:

At home in Kentucky, at Thanksgiving and Christmas instead of making pumpkin pie, we always made “Cushaw” pie. What’s a cushaw? Here’s a cushaw:

It is lighter flavor and not as “orange” as pumpkin. I don’t care for pie crust, so I just make a casserole of the custard.

We use to pay a fortune for cushaw’s at the Richmond greenhouses, but for the last few years they have been available at Wegman’s and a few other grocery stores for around $5.00 each. We usually buy them all and have a marathon “cushaw cooking party” so we’ll have plenty of it available in the freezer for the year.

We prepare the “meat” like you would prepare a pumpkin. Then we drain the cushaw well and freeze in 2+ cup measurements (what’s needed for a pie plus some more to allow for draining off more water when we thaw it out… just like you would do to prepare fresh pumpkin).