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Apple Tarts

Apple tarts made with boiled apples, egg yolks, lemon, butter, sugar, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the apples

  1. Pare, quarter and core the apples.

  2. Boil the apples in ½ cup of water until very soft.

  3. Beat the apples until smooth.

Make the filling

  1. Add the egg yolks (or whole eggs), lemon juice, lemon rind, butter, and sugar, and mix thoroughly.

Bake the tarts

  1. Line tart tins with puff pastry.

  2. Fill the tart tins with the apple mixture.

  3. Bake for 5 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

Bake the pie

  1. Line a pie pan with crust.

  2. Sprinkle the pie pan with sugar.

  3. Fill the pie pan with thinly sliced apples.

  4. Sprinkle sugar and a little cinnamon over the apples.

  5. Add small bits of butter and 1 tablespoon of water.

  6. Dredge the apples with flour.

  7. Cover the pie with the top crust.

  8. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

Alternative method and serving

  1. Alternatively, fill the pie with sliced apples.

  2. Cover the pie with the top crust.

  3. Bake the pie.

  4. Remove the top crust.

  5. Add sugar, butter, and seasoning.

  6. Replace the crust.

  7. Serve warm.

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and, once cooked, its soft, sweet body.
Egg yolks or whole eggs
Set and thicken the smooth apple mixture as it bakes, giving it a custard-like richness.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a silky mouthfeel in the filling and crust.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it brown slightly in the oven.
Lemon juice and rind
Add acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet apple flavour.
Flour
Dredged over the sliced apples to help thicken the juices in the pie.

The step that matters

Beat the apples until smooth after boiling. Apples must be cooked until very soft so the purée blends evenly; lumps or undercooked pieces leave a grainy texture and uneven set when the eggs and butter are mixed in and baked.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, lemon, butter, sugar, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, butter, sugar, cinnamon, flour. 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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