Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Green Gooseberry Tart
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 filling
Top and tail the gooseberries.
Place the gooseberries in a saucepan with enough water to prevent burning and stew slowly until they break.
Remove from heat, sweeten with sugar, and set aside to cool.
Assemble and bake
Once cool, pour the mixture into the pastry shell.
Cover with puff pastry and brush with beaten egg.
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 3 minutes to glaze.
Serve
Serve 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 + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the tart fruit base that breaks down into the filling's body and flavour.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart fruit, balancing its natural sourness.
- Prepared pastry shell
- Holds the cooled fruit filling in a firm, crisp base.
- Puff pastry
- Forms a flaky, layered top crust over the filling.
- Beaten egg
- Brushed on the top crust to promote browning and a glossy glaze.
The step that matters
Stewing the gooseberries. Gooseberries are firm and pectin-rich, so they need slow, gentle heat with enough water. High heat scorches the bottom of the pan before the fruit breaks down into a smooth 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.
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