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Onion Tart

A savory pastry filled with stewed onions, eggs, cream, and seasoned with pepper and sea salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Onion Tart

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.

Cook the onions

  1. Slice the onions and stew them with 1½ oz of butter without browning until tender.

  2. Let the onions cool.

  3. Mix in the beaten eggs, cream, and seasoning.

Make the tart

  1. Make a dough with the remaining flour and butter.

  2. Reserve a small amount of dough.

  3. Line a baking tin with the dough and pour in the onion mixture.

  4. Cut the reserved dough into thin strips.

  5. Lay the strips crosswise over the tart to form diamond shapes.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden brown.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Onion + peppertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together68,474 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Wheat + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,373 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Butter + wheattop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Onions
Provide the main sweet, savoury filling that becomes soft and mellow when stewed.
Eggs
Set the custard so the onion filling holds together when baked.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, tender texture.
Butter
Adds fat for flavour and helps the stewed onions become tender and rich.
Wheat flour
Forms the dough structure that holds the filling and browns in the oven.

The step that matters

Stew the onions without browning. Stewing gently softens the onions and keeps their flavour sweet and mild. Browning them changes the taste and releases extra moisture, which can make the custard watery.

Swap the onion

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

  1. Spinachfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Asparagusfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, egg, cream, pepper, wheat, flour. 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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