Name: Orange Tartlets
Ingredients: a cup of sugar; a tablespoonful of butter; a good teaspoonful of cornstarch into the juice of half a lemon; two large oranges

Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Tartlets

Ingredients

a cup of sugar
a tablespoonful of butter
a good teaspoonful of cornstarch into the juice of half a lemon
two large oranges

Directions

Make the filling

Combine the juice of two large oranges, grated peel of one orange, three-fourths cup of sugar, and a tablespoonful of butter.
Stir in a good teaspoonful of cornstarch into the juice of half a lemon and add to the mixture. Beat all well together.

Bake

Bake in tart shells without cover.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

680Calories

15 gProtein

13 gFat

126 gCarbs

What these numbers assume: 5 portions

Ingredient	Portion assumed	kcal
Flour	1 cup (125g) all-purpose	455
Butter	1 tbsp (14g)	102
Orange	1 medium (131g)	62
Sugar	1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated	49
Lemon	juice of 1 lemon (48ml)	12

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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.

Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together10,634 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,227 recipes

Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Oranges: Provide the juice and peel that flavour the filling and give it its acidity.
Sugar: Sweetens the filling and balances the acidity of the citrus juice.
Cornstarch: Thickens the citrus juice into a smooth filling that holds its shape.
Butter: Adds richness and a smoother texture to the filling.