Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Custard Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pastry
Line round tartlet pans with puff pastry.
Make the custard
Cream together sugar and butter until light.
Add beaten egg yolks and flour. Mix well.
Stir in milk.
Cook in a double boiler until thick and smooth.
Bake and top
Bake the pastry shells until golden.
Fill the shells with custard.
Beat egg whites with powdered sugar and vanilla until stiff and glossy.
Spread meringue over custard.
Bake until lightly browned.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Butter + milktop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,241 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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
- Puff pastry
- Forms the crisp, flaky shell that holds the custard.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the custard and add richness and colour.
- Flour
- Helps thicken the custard so it holds its shape.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess.
- Egg whites
- Whip into a stable meringue that browns on top.
- Butter
- Adds fat and richness to the custard base.
The step that matters
Cooking the custard in a double boiler. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so gentle, indirect heat and constant stirring until thick and smooth keep the custard silky. Cooking it until thick also ensures the flour has thickened it enough to hold under the meringue.
Swap the vanilla
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk):
- Vanillathe original
- Raisinfits about as well
- Figfits less well
- Coconutfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, egg, flour, milk. 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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