Why it works: Raisin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,481 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Gooseberry-tart
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the filling
Pick over the gooseberries, removing tops and stems.
Wash the gooseberries in cold water and drain.
Assemble the tart
Make a pastry and line a deep pie dish about 1 inch up the sides.
Mix the gooseberries with the raisins and sugar, then fill the pastry with this mixture.
Wet the edges of the pastry to help them adhere, then press a curved finger around the top to form a groove.
Make three or four cuts in the groove with a small, sharp knife.
Bake and serve
Bake the tart until the crust is nicely browned.
Serve hot or cold.
Dust with powdered sugar.
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.
-
Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together12,481 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gooseberries
- Provide the tart's main fruit filling and its tangy flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart-tasting gooseberries and helps balance their acidity.
- Raisins
- Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness to the filling.
- Pastry
- Forms the structural shell that holds the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Bake until the crust is nicely browned. The crust must be fully baked so its starch sets and it holds its shape under the juicy filling; underbaked pastry stays soggy and pale.
“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.
You might also like
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Spice Cake344 recipesThe 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.