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Dessert

Mocha Tart

A baked tart made with eggs, sugar, flour, mocha extract, and topped with a mocha-flavored icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Mocha Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the sponge

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the egg yolks and granulated sugar until very light.

  3. Add the Mocha extract, flour, and baking powder. Mix well.

  4. Beat the egg whites until frothy. Fold the egg whites into the batter.

  5. Divide the batter into three tins.

Bake and finish

  1. Bake for 5 to 8 minutes.

  2. Whip the heavy cream until stiff and sweeten with sugar to taste. Add the Mocha extract to the cream.

  3. Mix the confectioners' sugar with the Mocha extract. Add water gradually until the desired consistency is reached.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + creamtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Eggs
Whipped yolks and whites give the sponge its light, airy structure.
All-purpose flour
Provides the starch structure that holds the sponge once baked.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter, helping the sponge rise.
Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds moisture and a rich filling texture.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the batter and helps whip the yolks to a light, stable foam.

The step that matters

Folding the egg whites into the batter. Whites hold air that makes the sponge light. Stirring vigorously deflates them, so fold gently until just combined.

“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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