Skip to main content
Dessert

Martha Washington Pie

A sweet almond and macaroon pie flavored with rum, cinnamon, and orange flower water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Martha Washington Pie

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar with 2 ounces of powdered sugar, adding 1 raw egg gradually.

  2. Once well pounded, mix in 2 ounces of sugar, melted butter, rum, cinnamon, orange flower water, and another egg.

  3. Pound for 5 minutes, then add the macaroons.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie plate with the pie crust.

  2. Pour the mixture into the crust.

  3. Bake.

  4. Decorate with candied fruits.

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. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Rum + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together508 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the bulk of the filling, giving a dense, nutty body once pounded.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm custard-like texture when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing tenderness and a smooth texture to the filling.
Macaroons
Add extra almond flavour and a moist, chewy texture to the filling.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, sugar, egg, butter, rum, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, egg, butter, rum, cinnamon. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipesOrange GelatinOrange Gelatin100 recipesOrange SherbetOrange Sherbet73 recipes