Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Cream Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the dough
Make a paste with the egg white, egg yolks, sugar, butter, salt, and enough flour to form a dough.
Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thick and line patty pans with it.
Bake and serve
Fill the lined pans with uncooked rice and bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until done.
Remove the rice, fill the tartlets with jam or preserves, and top with a spoonful of whipped cream.
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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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and help bind the dough, giving it a tender, rich texture.
- Butter
- Adds fat that makes the dough tender and short.
- Flour
- Provides structure so the dough holds its shape when rolled and baked.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the dough brown lightly in the oven.
The step that matters
Fill the lined pans with uncooked rice before baking. The rice weights the dough so the pastry shell keeps its shape and does not puff or slump while it bakes. Removing the rice afterward leaves a crisp, empty shell ready for filling.
“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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