Why it works: Angelica and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 189 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
Angelica Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Pare and core the apples.
Peel the angelica stalks and cut them into small pieces.
Boil the apples in enough water to cover them, with lemon peel and sugar until they produce a thin syrup.
Strain the syrup and return it to the fire with the angelica; boil for 10 minutes.
Prepare a puff pastry and lay it in the bottom of a tart tin.
Layer the cooked apples and angelica in the pastry until full.
Pour the syrup over the layers, cover with pastry, and bake at 350°F (175°C) until golden.
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.
-
Angelica + lemontop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together189 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
-
Apple + angelicatop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
-
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (angelica, lemon, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Limefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against angelica, lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes