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Dessert

Chocolate Tarts

Chocolate tarts made with chocolate, eggs, sugar, butter, milk, cornstarch, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, lemon juice, baked in pastry shells and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate filling

  1. Whisk four eggs, separating whites and yolks.

  2. Grate one-half cake of baker's chocolate.

  3. Dissolve one tablespoonful of cornstarch in water. Add three tablespoonfuls of milk. Add four of white sugar. Add two teaspoonfuls of vanilla. Add one saltspoonful of salt. Add one-half teaspoonful of cinnamon.

  4. Melt one teaspoonful of butter.

  5. Rub the grated chocolate smooth in the milk and heat to boiling over the fire. Stir in the dissolved cornstarch. Stir for five minutes until well thickened.

  6. Remove from the fire and pour into a bowl.

  7. Beat all the yolks and the whites of two eggs well with the sugar.

  8. When the chocolate mixture is almost cold, combine it with the yolk and egg whites mixture and stir until light.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in open shells of pastry.

  2. Cover with a meringue made from the whites of two eggs and two tablespoonfuls of sugar flavored with a teaspoonful of lemon juice.

  3. Serve cold.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

1018Calories
29 gProtein
35 gFat
144 gCarbs

Counts 10 of 11 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 10 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Chocolate1 oz (28g) semisweet155
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Vanilla1 tsp extract (4ml)12
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Salt1 tsp (6g)0
Cakenot in our table0

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.

  1. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

What each ingredient does

Cornstarch
Thickens the chocolate mixture as it heats and boils.
Eggs
Add richness and set the filling when combined and baked.
Baker's chocolate
Provides the chocolate flavor and body of the filling.
Milk
Provides liquid that gives the filling a smooth, creamy base.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the meringue.

The step that matters

Stir in the dissolved cornstarch and keep stirring until thickened. Starch only thickens once it is heated to boiling and stirred, so stopping early leaves the filling thin. Stirring also prevents lumps and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, vanilla, cinnamon, butter, sugar, egg, chocolate):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, vanilla, cinnamon, butter, sugar, egg, chocolate. 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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