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Dessert

Orange Tartlet

A small tart filled with orange juice, grated peel, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and corn starch.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Orange Tartlet

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).

Make the filling

  1. In a bowl, combine the orange juice, grated peel, sugar, butter, lemon juice, and corn starch. Beat until well mixed.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line gem pans with rich pie crust.

  2. Fill the crusts with the orange mixture.

  3. Bake in the preheated oven until set.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Orange + corntop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together586 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + corntop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,927 recipes

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

  4. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

  5. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Oranges
Supply the juice and grated peel that give the filling its main flavour and aroma.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as it dissolves, helps give the filling a smooth body.
Butter
Adds fat, which gives the filling a richer mouthfeel and softer texture.
Corn starch
Thickens the orange juice as it heats, so the filling sets rather than running.

The step that matters

Bake until set. Corn starch thickens when heated, but underbaking leaves the filling runny, while overbaking can make it dry or cause it to weep. Check for a firm, barely wobbling centre.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Limefits about as well
  4. Coconutfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, lemon, corn. 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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