Why it works: Egg and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 88,785 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Open Jam Tart
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line a shallow tin dish with puff pastry and fill it with jam.
Make the lattice and bake
Roll out some puff pastry and lightly wet it with beaten egg yolks mixed with milk and powdered sugar.
Cut the rolled pastry into narrow strips and place them across the tart.
Lay another strip around the edge, trim off the excess, and bake until the pastry loosens from the dish.
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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Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, crisp base and top that hold the filling.
- Jam
- Provides the sweet, fruity filling that sets the flavour of the tart.
- Egg yolks
- Mixed with milk and sugar, they brush onto the pastry to promote browning and a glossy finish.
- Milk
- Combined with the egg yolks, it helps the glaze spread evenly and brown the pastry.
The step that matters
Baking until the pastry loosens from the dish. Pastry needs enough oven heat to puff and dry out fully; underbaking leaves the base soggy and stuck to the tin, while the glaze needs heat to set and brown.
“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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