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Dessert

Raspberry and Currant Tartlets

A pastry tartlet filled with rice or peas, topped with raspberries, currants, and syrup, then dusted with powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Raspberry and Currant Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the crusts

  1. Roll out the puff pastry to about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Line small tartlet molds with the pastry.

  3. Fill the molds with rice or dried peas.

  4. Place the filled molds in a paper bag.

  5. Prick the top of the bag with a skewer.

  6. Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for about 12 minutes until golden.

  7. Remove the rice or peas.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the tartlet crusts with raspberries and currants.

  2. Pour a little prepared syrup over the fruit.

  3. Return to the oven for a few minutes to heat.

  4. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  5. Serve.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,744 recipes

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

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes
  4. Rice + syruptop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together430 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Rice + curranttop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together497 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Currant and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, layered shell that holds the filling.
Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavour, tartness and colour.
Currants
Add concentrated tart fruit flavour and a deeper colour to the filling.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and a light finish on top of the tartlets.

The step that matters

Baking the empty crusts with weights. Filling the molds with rice or dried peas holds the pastry flat and stops it puffing and slumping. Baking until golden sets and dries the shell so it stays crisp under the fruit and syrup.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rice, syrup, 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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