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Dessert

Apple Tarts

Apple tarts made with apples, eggs, lemon, butter, sugar, and water, finished with a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Apple Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA very hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Peel and core the apples, which should be tart.

  2. Cook the apples in the water over low heat until soft.

  3. Beat the cooked apples until smooth, then let cool slightly.

  4. Add the beaten egg yolks, lemon juice, grated rind, and sugar to the apple mixture, adjusting sugar to taste.

Bake and top

  1. Line patty pans with pastry, fill with the apple mixture, and bake for 5 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then mix in 2 tablespoons of sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue on top of the tarts, return to the oven, and brown delicately.

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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Cooked apples supply the body and tartness of the filling.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the filling as they set; whites whip into a stable meringue.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the meringue whip and hold its shape.
Lemon
Juice adds acidity and grated rind adds bright aroma.

The step that matters

Let the apple mixture cool slightly before adding the yolks. A very hot mixture can scramble egg yolks. Cooling slightly lets the yolks blend in smoothly, so the filling thickens gently and stays silky.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, lemon, butter, 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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