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Meringue Custard Tartlets

A baked tart with a custard filling topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Meringue Custard 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

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Butter individual pie-tins or fluted tartlet pans, about 6 inches in diameter and 2 to 3 inches deep. Line the pans with puff pastry.

Make the custard

  1. In a bowl, stir the beaten yolks of 6 eggs with 2 tablespoons of flour, ¼ teaspoon of salt, and ½ cup of cream until smooth.

  2. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and cook over medium heat, stirring until the custard coats the back of a spoon without boiling.

  3. Pour the custard into a bowl, add a few drops of vanilla extract, and let it cool.

  4. Fill the lined pans with the cooled custard and bake in the preheated oven.

Top and finish

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until frothy, then gradually add ½ pound of sugar and a dash of salt until firm peaks form.

  2. Spread a thin layer of meringue over the tart and use a piping bag to decorate the top.

  3. Sprinkle powdered sugar over the meringue and return to the oven until lightly golden.

  4. Remove from the oven and let cool before serving.

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 + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  3. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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
Thicken the custard and add richness and colour to the filling.
All-purpose flour
Stabilises the custard so it thickens without curdling when heated.
Cream
Adds fat and smoothness to the custard for a softer texture.
Egg whites
Whipped into meringue to create a light, airy, stable topping.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the whipped egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard without boiling. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat; if the custard boils, the yolks can scramble and curdle, leaving a grainy texture. Stir constantly and stop once it coats the back of a spoon.

Swap the vanilla

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

  1. Raisinfits about as well
  2. Vanillathe original
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Strawberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, flour, cream, 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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