Why it works: Orange and lemon 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 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 the filling
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
In a bowl, beat together the juice of 2 oranges, grated peel of 1 orange, ¾ cup sugar, and 1 tablespoon butter.
Dissolve 1 teaspoon cornstarch in the juice of 1 lemon and add to the mixture.
Bake
Pour the filling into tart shells and bake until set.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,227 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 main juice and aromatic peel that flavour the filling.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the citrus juice.
- Butter
- Adds fat for richness and a smoother, silkier texture in the filling.
- Cornstarch
- Thickens the citrus juice so the filling sets firm when baked.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the filling.
The step that matters
Pour the filling into tart shells and bake until set. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, so the filling must bake long enough for the starch to gel. Underbaking leaves it runny; the filling firms as it cools.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, lemon):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Orangethe original
- Figfits less well
- Raspberryfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, lemon. 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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