Name: Parisian Tartlets
Ingredients: 6 ounces butter; 6 ounces castor sugar; 4 ounces cake crumbs; 2 ounces cornflour; 2 ounces ground almonds; 4 small eggs; 4 tablespoons cream; 2 teaspoons lemon juice; 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Why it works: Almond and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Parisian 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.

Cream the butter and sugar together until thick and smooth.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Mix the cream and cornflour together until smooth, then stir into the mixture.
Add the ground almonds, cake crumbs, cinnamon, and lemon juice, and mix well.
Line twelve tartlet molds with the short paste.
Fill the molds with the mixture and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.
When about three-quarters baked, sprinkle with castor sugar.

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.

Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together3,514 recipes

Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together41,516 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Raisinfits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, almond, egg, cream, cinnamon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.