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Chocolate Tarts

Chocolate tarts made with a chocolate custard filling and meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,287 recipes. Both carry 4-methoxybenzaldehyde, which smells sweet, anise. The science ↓

Chocolate Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the chocolate filling

  1. In a saucepan, combine grated chocolate and milk, and heat until boiling.

  2. Stir in dissolved corn-starch and cook for 5 minutes until thickened.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool.

  4. In a bowl, beat the yolks and whites of 2 eggs with sugar until light.

  5. Once the chocolate mixture is almost cold, combine it with the egg mixture and add vanilla, salt, and cinnamon. Stir until well mixed.

Bake and top

  1. Pour the mixture into pastry shells and bake until set.

  2. For the meringue, beat the remaining egg whites with 2 tablespoons sugar and lemon juice until stiff peaks form.

  3. Spread the meringue over the tarts and bake until lightly browned.

  4. Serve cold.

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. Vanilla + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  5. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Egg yolks thicken the filling and set it when baked, while whites form the meringue topping.
Chocolate
Provides the main chocolate flavour and body of the filling.
Corn-starch
Thickens the chocolate mixture as it cooks, giving it a set, sliceable texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps whip the egg whites into a stable meringue.

The step that matters

Cooling the chocolate before adding the eggs. If the hot chocolate mixture meets the beaten eggs, the yolks can scramble and the filling can curdle. Letting it cool to almost cold keeps the eggs smooth and the custard even.

“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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