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
Trim the tops and tails of the gooseberries.
Place the gooseberries in a saucepan with enough water to prevent burning and stew slowly until they break.
Remove from heat, sweeten well, and let cool.
Assemble and bake
Pour the cooled mixture into the pie crust.
Cover with puff pastry and brush with beaten egg.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 3 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 that cooks down into the filling, giving the tart its main flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cooked gooseberries and balances their natural tartness.
- Egg
- Brushed on the puff pastry to promote browning and a glossy glaze.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky top layer that puffs and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Stew the gooseberries until they break. Cooking gently with enough water prevents scorching on the bottom of the pan, and stewing until the fruit breaks down gives a smooth, spreadable filling rather than whole, firm berries.
“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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