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Dessert

Cream Strawberry Tarts

A tart of layered strawberries and a sweet cream filling, baked and served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Cream Strawberry Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pick over the strawberries.

  2. Arrange them in layers in a deep pie tin lined with puff pastry, sprinkling sugar thickly between each layer.

  3. Fill the pie tin with strawberries.

  4. Pour some of their juice into the tin.

Bake the pie

  1. Cover with a thick crust.

  2. Make a slit in the top of the crust.

  3. Bake at 400°F (200°C).

Make the cream filling

  1. Heat the cream until it boils.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with cold milk.

  3. Boil the mixture for a few moments until smooth.

  4. Set the mixture aside to cool.

  5. Pour the cream mixture into the pie through the slit in the crust.

Serve

  1. Serve cold.

  2. Dust with powdered sugar.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk 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

Strawberries
Provide the main fruit filling and their juice, which moistens the tart.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and draws out juice between the layers.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky crust that holds the filling.
Cream
Makes a rich base that sets into a smooth custard when heated.
Egg whites
Add structure to the cream mixture as it heats and thickens.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture when boiled so it becomes smooth.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream mixture with cornstarch. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and the starch must be mixed with cold milk first so it does not clump. Boiling briefly until smooth gives a filling that sets as it cools.

“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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