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Dessert

Almond Tart

A sweet tart made with ground almonds, egg yolks, sugar, milk, spices, and Savoy finger biscuits, topped with shredded Jordan almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Almond Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and stir them over low heat until they thicken.

  2. Mix in the ground almonds, sugar, milk, cinnamon, and ginger.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into pastry-lined pans and bake at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  2. Once baked, top with shredded Jordan almonds.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Almond + biscuittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + biscuittop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken and set the mixture as their proteins coagulate with gentle heat.
Ground sweet almonds
Provide the body and nutty flavour that give the filling its texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown lightly as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the filling.

The step that matters

Thicken the yolks over low heat. Egg yolk proteins set when heated, but too much heat makes them curdle or scramble. Low, steady heat and constant stirring thicken the mixture smoothly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, egg, cinnamon, sugar, milk, biscuit):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, egg, cinnamon, sugar, milk, biscuit. 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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