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Dessert

Banberry Tarts

A fruit tart made with raisins, citron, figs, lemon, sugar, crackers, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and fig work together. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 737 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Banberry Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Pound the raisins and mix with citron, chopped figs, lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, crushed crackers, and water.

  2. Heat the mixture through without cooking it.

  3. Once cool, stir in the brandy.

Assemble the tarts

  1. Cut pastry with a round cutter and place 1 tablespoon of the filling on each piece.

  2. Fold and seal the tarts as desired.

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. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  2. Fig + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Fig + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together222 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

  5. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Raisins
Provide sweetness and chewy body to the filling once pounded.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps soften and bind the fruit filling.
Crushed crackers
Absorb moisture and thicken the filling so it holds its shape.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the filling after it has cooled.

The step that matters

Heating the filling without cooking it. Heating only until warm softens the fruit and blends flavours while keeping fresh lemon and brandy aromas intact. Overcooking dulls flavour and can make the filling dense and sticky.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raisin, fig, sugar, brandy):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, fig, sugar, brandy. 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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