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Dessert

Apple Tarts

Apple tarts made with stewed apples, cinnamon, butter, bread crumbs, egg yolks, sweet milk, topped with stiffened egg whites and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple 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.

Make the filling

  1. Stew the apples as if for sauce, then sweeten the stewed apples.

  2. Add cinnamon and butter to the hot mixture.

  3. When the mixture is cold, add bread crumbs.

  4. Add beaten egg yolks and sweet milk.

Bake and top

  1. Bake with an under crust at 350°F (175°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites with sugar and flavoring extract until stiff.

  3. Pour the egg white mixture over the tarts and bake until light brown.

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

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
Beaten until stiff, they form a light meringue topping that puffs and browns in the oven.
Bread crumbs
Absorb liquid from the filling and give it body so it holds together when cut.
Sweet milk
Adds moisture and richness, helping the filling bake soft and creamy.
Tart apples
Provide the fruit base and tartness that balances the sugar in the filling.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites with sugar until stiff. Egg whites only become stable foam if fully beaten and free of any yolk or grease. Under-beaten whites will deflate and weep on the tarts, so the topping will not stay light and airy in the oven.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, butter, bread, egg, milk. 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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