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Open Apple Custard Tart

A tart of sliced apples topped with custard, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Open Apple Custard 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Place a border of pie crust around the edge of a pie plate without lining the bottom.

  3. Fill the plate with sliced apples, sprinkle with sugar and lemon peel, and add a little water.

  4. Cover with a crust, marking a circle in the center with a cake cutter or large tumbler.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake the pie until golden.

  2. Using a sharp knife, cut out the marked circle and lift the center piece.

  3. Fill the pie with warm custard made from milk, eggs, and sugar, boiled until it thickens.

  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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples
Provide the bulk of the filling and tart flavor that balances the sweetness.
Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it body and a firm texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding richness and creaminess.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples and the custard, and helps the custard stay smooth.

The step that matters

Boiling the custard until it thickens. Egg proteins set as the custard heats, thickening the mixture. Too little heat leaves it runny, while overheating can curdle it into a grainy texture.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, milk, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, milk, 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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