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Creamed Tartlets

Cremed Tartlets are small pastries filled with apricot jam and custard, topped with a frothy egg white icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. 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 pastry dough.

  2. Add a layer of apricot jam to each patty pan.

Make the topping

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

  2. Whisk the egg whites to a solid froth.

  3. Mix sifted sugar with the egg whites and lay the icing over the tartlets.

Bake

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

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

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

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

  3. Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,712 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

Very fine pastry dough
Forms the crisp shell that holds the jam, custard and icing.
Apricot jam
Adds fruity sweetness and a moist layer beneath the custard.
Egg whites
Whisked to a froth, they form the light icing that sets and browns in the oven.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the egg white icing and helps it set into a smooth crust.

The step that matters

Whisking the egg whites to a solid froth. Egg whites must be whipped until they hold stiff peaks, since air trapped in the foam gives the icing its lift and structure. Under-whisked whites spread and sink, while sugar added too early or whites with any grease can weaken the foam.

Swap the apricot

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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