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Strawberry Tarts

A pastry tart filled with a sweetened egg custard and topped with fresh strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Strawberry Tarts

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.

Prepare

  1. Beat the eggs, sugar, and butter together until well combined.

  2. Add the sweet milk and mix thoroughly.

  3. Roll out the pastry thin.

  4. Place the pastry in pans or a pie dish.

Fill and bake

  1. Pour the egg mixture into the pastry.

  2. Add a layer of fresh strawberries on top.

  3. Bake at 350°F (175°C) until the eggs are set and the tart is cooked.

  4. Serve warm.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs
Set the custard filling into a sliceable structure as they cook.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that makes the filling tender.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the eggs and butter.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and body, giving the egg mixture a smooth, pourable texture.
Fresh strawberries
Add fruity aroma and a bright, slightly acidic flavor to the tart.

The step that matters

Bake until the eggs are set. Egg proteins set as they heat. Underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking makes it tough, grainy, and likely to weep liquid.

“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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