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Creamed Strawberry Tarts

A tart of layered strawberries topped with a sweetened cream custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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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 ↓

Creamed Strawberry 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 the tart

  1. Carefully pick over the strawberries and arrange them in layers in a deep pie dish lined with puff pastry, sprinkling sugar between each layer.

  2. Fill the pie dish with strawberries and pour in some of their juice.

  3. Cover the strawberry layer with a thick crust. Make a slit in the top of the crust.

  4. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream until it boils.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and 1 teaspoon of cornstarch mixed with cold milk. Boil the mixture for a few moments until smooth.

  3. Set aside to cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cool, pour the cream mixture into the pie through the slit in the crust.

  2. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Strawberries
Provide the fruit filling and juice that flavour the tart.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky crust that holds the layered filling.
Cream
Gives the filling richness and a smooth, creamy body.
Egg whites
Heated with cornstarch, they thicken and set the cream filling.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture as it boils, giving a smooth set.

The step that matters

Boiling the cream mixture until smooth. Cornstarch must reach a boil to fully thicken and lose its raw starchy taste. Stopping early leaves a thin or grainy filling. Stirring constantly prevents lumps and scorching.

“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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