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Marrow Pasty

A pastry filled with almonds, apples, orange peel, marrow, suet, egg yolks, wine, sugar, and cinnamon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Marrow Pasty

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Blanch and chop the almonds and apples very small.

  2. Cut the orange peel and marrow into small pieces.

  3. If using, shred the beef suet finely.

Make the filling

  1. Mix all ingredients together with the egg yolks and white wine.

  2. Season with sugar and cinnamon.

Bake and serve

  1. Cover with puff pastry.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until golden.

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. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

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

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

  5. Apple + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,230 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

Marrow
Melts into the filling, adding rich fat that keeps it moist and flavourful.
Apples
Add moisture, natural sweetness and a soft texture to the filling.
Sweet almonds
Add body, nutty richness and a fine texture once chopped small.
Egg yolks
Bind the chopped ingredients together and add richness to the filling.
White wine
Adds acidity and moisture that brightens the sweet, rich filling.
Orange peel
Adds a fragrant citrus aroma that lifts the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until golden. The wet apple and wine filling can soften the pastry from below, so the oven must be hot enough for the puff pastry to rise and brown before the filling makes it soggy. Check for a deep golden colour rather than relying on time alone.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, orange, beef, egg, white wine, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Chestnutfits about as well
  3. Beansfits less well
  4. Walnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, orange, beef, egg, white wine, sugar, 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.

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