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
Make the filling
Place the gooseberries in a porcelain kettle with enough water to prevent burning.
Stew slowly until the gooseberries break down.
Remove from heat, sweeten with sugar, and set aside to cool.
Assemble and bake
Once cooled, pour the mixture into pastry shells.
Cover with a top crust of puff pastry.
Brush the top with beaten egg and return to the oven to glaze for 3 minutes.
Let cool before serving.
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
- Break down into the body of the filling, providing the tart's main flavour and texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the stewed gooseberries, balancing their natural tartness.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky shell and top crust that hold the filling.
- Egg
- Brushed on top, it promotes browning and a glossy glaze during baking.
The step that matters
Stew slowly until the gooseberries break down. Gentle heat with enough water keeps the fruit from scorching while it softens into a smooth filling. Scorched fruit tastes bitter and burnt, and a filling that is not broken down stays lumpy.
“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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