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Dessert

An Apple Tart

A tart with a pastry crust filled with apples, pears, figs, raisins, spices, and saffron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 649 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

An Apple Tart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Prepare a pastry crust and set aside.

  2. Peel and core the apples and pears, then chop them finely.

Make the filling

  1. Mix the chopped fruits with spices, figs, and raisins.

  2. Add saffron for color and mix well.

  3. Fill the pastry crust with the fruit mixture.

Bake

  1. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Apple + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Fig + peartop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together65 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Apple + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together238 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Raisin + saffrontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide bulk and a tender, juicy texture as they soften during baking.
Pears
Add soft texture and mild sweetness to the fruit filling.
Figs
Contribute chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.
Raisins
Add concentrated sweetness and a chewy texture to the filling.
Pastry crust
Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Chop the fruit finely and fill the crust evenly. Finely chopped fruit cooks through at the same rate as the crust, so the filling softens without the crust turning soggy or the tart baking unevenly.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, fig, raisin, pear):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Clovefits better
  3. Nutmegfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, fig, raisin, pear. 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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