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Pithiviers Cream for Tartlets

A nutty cream made from blanched almonds, sugar, butter, eggs, and rum, used in tartlets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,245 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Pithiviers Cream for Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Pound the almonds in a mortar to a fine paste.

  2. Mix the almond paste with the eggs.

  3. Add the sugar and butter, and mix until light and smooth.

  4. Stir in the rum and keep the cream in an earthenware pan ready for use.

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. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  2. Butter + rumtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  4. Almond + rumtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Blanched almonds
Provide the bulk and nutty flavour of the cream when pounded to a paste.
Eggs
Bind the almond paste and add richness and structure to the cream.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, helping the cream turn light and smooth when beaten with sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the butter and eggs whip into a light, smooth texture.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavour to the cream.

The step that matters

Beat the sugar and butter until light and smooth. Beating sugar and butter together traps air, which gives the cream a light texture. If the mixture is not beaten enough, the cream will be dense and heavy rather than smooth and airy.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, rum):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Walnutfits less well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, rum. 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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