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Dessert

Macaroon Pie

A pie made from crushed macaroons, applesauce, eggs, lemon, cream, suet, raisins, molasses, spices, baked in a crust, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 17 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and allspice match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,083 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Macaroon Pie

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, combine crushed macaroons, apple sauce, beaten eggs, lemon juice, and cream.

  3. Line a pie pan with the crust and fill it with the mixture.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

  2. Spread meringue on top and brown it in the oven.

  3. Serve cold, garnished with English walnuts and holly.

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. Lemon + allspicetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,083 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Sauce + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,787 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Raisin + allspicetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,475 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  4. Raisin + molassestop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,577 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Apple + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,920 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the filling into a sliceable custard as they cook and coagulate.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, moist texture to the filling.
Apple sauce
Adds moisture and body to the filling.
Crushed macaroons
Add sweetness and body to the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. The beaten eggs thicken the filling as they cook, so it must be baked until just set. Underbaked filling stays runny and slices poorly, while overbaking makes the eggs curdle and weep.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sauce, egg, lemon, cream, raisin, molasses, allspice):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sauce, egg, lemon, cream, raisin, molasses, allspice. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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