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George Washington Pie

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Coconut and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

George Washington Pie

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Sift the baking powder with the flour.

  2. Squeeze the orange juice over the sugar.

  3. Add the beaten yolks, then the flour, and finally the beaten egg whites.

  4. For the cream filling, scald the milk in a double boiler.

  5. Pour the hot milk over the beaten eggs and sugar, adding the flour and salt.

  6. Return to the double boiler and stir constantly until a coating forms on the spoon, but do not boil.

  7. Let the mixture cool, then split the cake when cold.

  8. Spread a thick layer of the filling between the cake layers and cover with grated coconut.

  9. Top with powdered sugar and additional coconut.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Coconut + vanillatop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Coconut + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,648 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, egg, coconut, milk, vanilla):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Blueberryfits better
  3. Bananafits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, egg, coconut, milk, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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