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Dessert

Cream Strawberry Tarts

A tart of puff pastry filled with strawberries and topped with a sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cream Strawberry Tarts

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.

Assemble the tart

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Line a deep pie tin with puff pastry.

  3. Layer the strawberries in the tin, sprinkling sugar between each layer.

  4. Fill the tin with strawberries and pour in some juice.

  5. Cover with a thick crust and make a slit in the top.

Bake

  1. Bake until golden brown.

Make the cream

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream until boiling.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites, sugar, and cornstarch mixed with cold milk.

  3. Boil until smooth, then set aside to cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the cream mixture into the pie through the slit in the crust.

  2. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 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

Strawberries
Provide juicy fruit flavor, moisture and natural sweetness for the filling.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, sturdy crust that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
Cream
Gives the filling a rich, smooth, creamy body.
Egg whites
Help the cream mixture set and add structure to the filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture as it boils, giving a smooth, sliceable filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the strawberries and the cream filling.

The step that matters

Boil the cream mixture until smooth. Cornstarch only thickens fully once the mixture reaches a boil, so it must be brought up to temperature. Stirring constantly prevents lumps and keeps the egg whites from clumping or scrambling as they cook.

“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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