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Dessert

Martha Washington Pie

A pie made with blanched almonds, powdered sugar, eggs, butter, rum, cinnamon, orange flower water, macaroons, and candied fruit.

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 ↓

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 powdered sugar, 2 ounces of melted butter, ½ cup of rum, ¼ teaspoon of ground cinnamon, 6 drops of orange flower water, and another egg.

  3. Pound for 5 minutes, then add 2 ounces of well-pounded macaroons.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a pie plate with the pie crust, pour in the mixture, and bake until set.

  2. Decorate with candied fruits before serving.

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 and nutty flavour of the filling.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable filling when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and a tender texture to the filling.
Macaroons
Add extra almond flavour and body to the filling.
Rum
Adds a distinctive aroma and flavour to the filling.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Baking only until the filling has set keeps the eggs tender rather than curdled or rubbery. Overbaking squeezes out moisture and leaves a dry, grainy texture.

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.

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