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Dessert

Strawberry Tarts

A baked tart with a custard filling of eggs, sugar, butter, and sweet milk, topped with fresh strawberries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Strawberry Tarts

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Roll out the pastry thin and line pattypans or a pie dish with it.

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, beat together the eggs, sugar, and butter until well combined.

  2. Add the sweet milk and mix until smooth.

  3. Pour the egg mixture into the lined dish.

  4. Strew a layer of fresh strawberries on top.

Bake

  1. Bake until the eggs are set and the tart is golden.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  2. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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
Set the custard so it firms up into a sliceable filling when baked.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, giving the filling a softer, tender texture.
Sweet milk
Provides liquid and milk solids that make the custard smooth and help it brown.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and aids golden browning in the baked tart.
Fresh strawberries
Add fruit flavour and moisture to the top of the tart.

The step that matters

Bake until the eggs are set and the tart is golden. Egg custard keeps cooking after it leaves the oven. Pull it when the centre is just set and still slightly soft, otherwise it can curdle, weep, or turn rubbery.

“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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