Why it works: Vanilla and angelica match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 170 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓
St. Cloud Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderately hot oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the tartlets
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Line patty pans with short paste and brush edges with beaten egg or water, then sprinkle with castor sugar.
Fill with greengage jam and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.
Make the puff paste rings
Roll out puff paste to ⅛ inch thick and cut out rings smaller than the tartlets.
Brush rings with milk, coat with castor sugar, and place sugar side up on a baking sheet.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.
Assemble and decorate
Once cooled, place rings on tartlets and fill centers with whipped cream sweetened with vanilla sugar.
Top each with half a glace cherry and a few strips or leaves of angelica for decoration.
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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Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together170 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Cream + angelicatop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together237 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
- Short paste
- Forms the crisp, sturdy shell that holds the jam filling.
- Puff paste
- Rises and flakes in the oven to form the light, golden decorative rings.
- Greengage jam
- Provides the fruity, sweet filling that sets as it bakes inside the shell.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the pastry and caramelises on the surface to add browning.
- Cream
- Whipped to a soft, moist filling that adds richness to the centers.
The step that matters
Baking the puff paste rings until golden. Puff pastry rises through steam released by its layers of butter, so it needs a hot oven to puff well. Baking it too cool or too briefly leaves it flat and pale, while over-baking can scorch the sugar coating.
Swap the angelica
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vanilla, cream):
- Cinnamonfits better
- Nutmegfits better
- Angelicathe original
- Peppermintfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla, cream. 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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