Why it works: Egg and sugar 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 ↓
Tart Shells
Ingredients
Directions
Shape the shells
Roll out the puff pastry thinly.
Cut out circles with a biscuit cutter.
Cut out the center of two circles using a smaller cup.
Lay the rings on the third circle.
Bake immediately.
Alternatively, line patty pans with the pastry to make shells.
Fill and top
Fill the shells with jelly.
Whip the egg white.
Mix in the sugar to make meringue.
Cover the filled shells with meringue.
Bake and serve
Bake until golden.
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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Egg + sugartop 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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the crisp shell, with its thin layers puffing and separating as it bakes.
- Egg white
- Whipped into foam that becomes the meringue topping, giving a light, airy texture.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the meringue and helps stabilize the whipped egg white.
- Jelly
- Provides a sweet, fruity layer inside the shells beneath the meringue.
The step that matters
Whip the egg white before adding the sugar. Egg white foams best when whisked to stiff peaks with no trace of fat or yolk. Adding sugar after the whites are foamy helps dissolve it and build a stable meringue that holds its shape on the filled shells.
“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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