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Dessert

Creamed Tartlets

Small pastry shells filled with apricot jam and custard, topped with a sweet egg white icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Creamed Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Line pattypans with very fine paste.

  2. Add a layer of apricot jam to each pattypan.

  3. Pour thick-boiled custard or pastry cream over the jam.

Top and bake

  1. Whisk egg whites to a solid froth and mix in sifted sugar.

  2. Spread the icing lightly over the tartlets.

  3. Bake in a gentle oven at 300 °F (150 °C) for 20 to 30 minutes, adjusting time for smaller tartlets.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  4. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  5. Apricot + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Very fine paste
Forms the crisp case that holds the filling while baking.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour under the custard.
Thick-boiled custard or pastry cream
Provides a rich, soft filling that sets as it bakes.
Egg whites
Whisked into a foam that bakes into a light, pale icing.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the egg white icing and helps it hold its shape.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites to a solid froth. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks so the icing stays airy and spreads without collapsing in the oven. Under-whipped whites turn runny and sink into the custard.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar. 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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