Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Green Gooseberry Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the filling
Top and tail the gooseberries.
Place them in a porcelain kettle with enough water to prevent burning.
Stew slowly until they break.
Sweeten well and set aside to cool.
Assemble and bake
Pour the cooled mixture into pastry shells.
Cover with a top crust of puff pastry.
Brush the top with beaten egg.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for three minutes to glaze.
Serve
Serve cold.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the tart fruit filling that softens and thickens as it stews.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and balances the gooseberries' natural tartness.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the layered, flaky crust that holds the filling and rises in the oven.
- Beaten egg
- Gives the top crust a glossy, browned finish when baked.
The step that matters
Stew slowly until they break. Gentle heat lets the fruit soften and release its pectin, so the filling thickens. Stewing too hard can scorch the sugar and water or leave the fruit unevenly cooked.
“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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