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 ↓
Fruit Tarts
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
Line your tart pans with pastry.
Fill with your choice of jelly, preserve, or jam.
Cover with a lattice of pastry.
Glaze with egg white.
Bake and serve
Bake at 400°F (200°C) until light brown.
Sift powdered sugar over the tarts before serving.
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
- Pastry
- Forms the tart shell and lattice top, providing structure that holds the filling.
- Jelly, preserve, or jam
- Supplies the sweet, fruity filling that sets as the tarts bake.
- Egg white
- Glaze that promotes browning and a glossy finish on the lattice.
The step that matters
Glaze with egg white. A thin, even coat gives the lattice an even golden colour and sheen in the oven. Too thick a layer can pool and look patchy, while missing spots brown unevenly.
“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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