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Dessert

Almond Tarts

A baked tart made with eggs, sugar, and shelled almonds, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Almond Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the almond filling

  1. Beat the yolks of the eggs until creamy.

  2. Add the sugar and beat vigorously.

  3. Pound the almonds slightly.

  4. Mix the almonds with the egg and sugar mixture.

Bake the tarts

  1. Place the mixture in patty pans lined with pastry.

  2. Bake for 8 minutes.

Add the meringue and brown

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Add 2 teaspoons of sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue on top of the tarts.

  4. Return the tarts to the oven to brown nicely.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Egg + almondtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the filling, while whites build the meringue topping.
Almonds
Provide the main body, texture and nutty flavor of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilize the beaten egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until stiff. Whipped whites trap air to form a stable foam. Under-beaten whites can weep or collapse, so the meringue may sink or become soggy while it browns in the oven.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, 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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