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Dessert

Cranberry Tarts

A tart with a sweet cream crust and a cranberry filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Cranberry Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the dough

  1. Whisk the cold cream and beaten egg whites together for 10 minutes.

  2. Add enough flour to form a dough.

  3. Roll the dough out.

  4. Cut the dough to fit the tart pans.

  5. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until lightly browned.

Make the filling

  1. Stew the cranberries in water until soft.

  2. Rub the cranberry mixture through a colander.

  3. Add sugar to the cranberry puree and cook until dissolved.

  4. Pour the filling into the tart shells.

  5. Refrigerate until very cold.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

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

Egg and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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

Cold cream
Adds richness and moisture, and helps make the dough tender.
Egg whites
Whisked into the dough to add structure and help it set and brown.
Flour
Forms the dough's structure once it is rolled and baked.
Cranberries
Provide the tart fruit flavour and body of the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the cranberry filling and balances its tartness.

The step that matters

Rub the cranberry mixture through a colander. Pressing the stewed cranberries through a colander removes skins and seeds, giving a smooth filling; leftover pieces would make the texture grainy.

“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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