Name: Cranberry Tarts
Ingredients: 1 cup cranberries; 1 cup seeded and chopped raisins (optional); Sugar to taste; Tart shells

Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Cranberry Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

1 cup cranberries
1 cup seeded and chopped raisins (optional)
Sugar to taste
Tart shells

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 filling

If using whole berries, cook them in syrup until soft.
If using uncooked berries, mash them and sweeten well.

Bake and serve

Fill the tart shells with the prepared cranberries.
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

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.

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

Cranberries: Provide the tart, fruity filling that sets as it cooks and is sweetened to balance acidity.
Raisins: Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the filling.

“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.