Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Raspberry 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.
Prepare the tart
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Fill a pie dish with raspberries or a mix of raspberries and red currants.
Line the edges of the dish with pie crust.
Sprinkle sugar over the fruit and cover with rolled‑out pastry, ¼ inch thick.
Decorate the edges and bake until the pastry is golden, about 45 minutes.
Add the custard and finish
Once cooled, sift powdered sugar over the top.
For a richer tart, prepare a custard by beating cream with egg yolks.
Lift the pastry cover, pour the custard over the fruit, and replace the cover.
Return to the oven for 5 minutes.
Sift more powdered sugar over the top and serve hot or cold.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together42,166 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,156 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Red currant + eggtop 28% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together345 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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
- Raspberries
- Provide the main fruit flavour and juice that moistens the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out its juices.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the cream custard so it sets softly over the fruit.
- Cream
- Adds richness and a smooth, silky texture to the custard.
- Pie crust
- Forms the structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Custard after the first bake. Egg yolks in cream set when gently heated; pouring custard into a hot tart and returning it briefly to the oven can overcook it into a grainy texture, so watch it closely during the final 5 minutes.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Strawberryfits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, egg. 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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