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 ↓
Tart Crust
Ingredients
Directions
Make the dough
Mix lard with 1 cup of flour.
Add salt, sugar, and cream of tartar.
Beat the egg white and mix with water and baking soda.
Combine all ingredients and keep the dough cold.
Roll out
Add flour as needed to roll the dough to ½ inch thick.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,481 recipes
Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Lard
- Fat that coats flour particles, producing a short, tender, flaky texture.
- Egg white
- Adds protein that helps bind the dough and give it structure.
- Cream of tartar
- Acid that stabilizes the egg white and works with baking soda for lift.
- Baking soda
- Alkaline agent that reacts with the acid to add a little rising.
- Sugar
- Adds mild sweetness and a little browning to the crust.
The step that matters
Keep the dough cold. Cold fat stays in solid pieces while the dough is mixed and rolled, and those pieces melt in the oven to leave flaky layers. If the lard softens, it blends into the flour and the crust becomes greasy and dense.
“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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