Name: A Good Apple Tart
Ingredients: 1 pound and 1 quarter of apples, peeled and cored; 4 ounces of pounded sugar (more if apples are very acidic); Grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon; English puff-paste or cream-crust for the border

Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓

A Good Apple Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderately brisk oven

Ingredients

1 pound and 1 quarter of apples, peeled and cored
4 ounces of pounded sugar (more if apples are very acidic)
Grated rind and juice of 1/2 lemon
English puff-paste or cream-crust for the border

Directions

The book says “a moderately brisk oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

Prepare a tart dish with a border of puff-paste or cream-crust.
Dip the apples in water and arrange them compactly in the dish, higher in the center.

Cover and bake

Sprinkle the apples with pounded sugar and add the grated lemon rind and juice.
Cover with a thin layer of rolled pastry.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 30 minutes.
Remove the cover while hot and leave a 1-inch border.

Finish

Pour cooled custard over the apples.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together7,551 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,089 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

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, softening as they bake and releasing juice.
Pounded sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples brown and caramelize slightly as they bake.
Lemon rind and juice: Adds acidity and fragrant aroma that balance the sweetness of the apples and sugar.
Puff-paste or cream-crust: Forms the structural border that holds the filling in the dish.