Why it works: Sugar and egg 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 ↓
Green Gooseberry Tart
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.
Make the filling
Place the gooseberries in a porcelain kettle with enough water to prevent burning.
Stew slowly until the gooseberries break down.
Remove from heat and sweeten to taste.
Let the mixture cool, then pour it into pastry shells.
Assemble and bake
Cover with a top crust of puff pastry.
Brush the top with beaten egg while hot.
Return to the oven and bake at 400°F (200°C) for three minutes to glaze.
Serve
Serve cold.
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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Sugar + eggtop 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
- Green gooseberries
- Provide the tart fruit flavour and, as they break down, the body of the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart filling and balances the gooseberries' natural acidity.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky, buttery top crust that bakes crisp and golden.
- Beaten egg
- Gives the top crust a glossy, browned finish when brushed on and baked.
The step that matters
Stew until the gooseberries break down. Gooseberries are firm and sour when raw, and cooking them slowly with a little water softens the fruit and its pectin so the filling thickens to a spoonable texture. Heating too fast can scorch the sugars and fruit against the pan before they break down.
“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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