Skip to main content
Dessert

Banberry Tarts

A pastry tart filled with a paste of raisins, figs, sugar, orange peel, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Banberry Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the filling

  1. Chop or grind the raisins and figs into a paste.

  2. Mix in the sugar, orange peel, and lemon juice.

Assemble the tarts

  1. Roll out the pastry and cut it into squares.

  2. Spread the fruit paste on each square and place a small piece of butter on top.

  3. Moisten the edges of the pastry with milk or water.

  4. Fold the squares into triangles and press the edges tightly with a fork.

  5. Cut a small cross on top of each tart and brush with milk.

Bake

  1. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven until golden.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Fig + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

  4. Raisin + figtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  5. Fig + milktop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,026 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Seeded raisins
Provides moisture and sweetness to the fruit paste filling.
Dried figs
Add body and sweetness, helping the paste hold together when chopped.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps it caramelize and brown in the oven.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet fruit filling.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the filling as it melts during baking.
Rich pastry
Forms the tender, flaky crust that encloses the fruit filling.

The step that matters

Pressing the edges tightly with a fork. If the pastry edges are not sealed well, the moist fruit filling can leak out during baking. Moistening the edges first helps the dough stick together.

Swap the raisin

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Raisinthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fig, sugar, orange, lemon, butter, milk. 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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes