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Dessert

Cheese Tartlets

Cheese tartlets are small pastry cases filled with a buttery breadcrumb mixture, cheese, anchovy strips, and garnished with egg yolk and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cheese and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,962 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Cheese Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Make the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. In a saucepan, combine butter and water, and bring to a boil.

  3. Stir in enough fine breadcrumbs to create a stiff mixture.

  4. Beat in the egg yolk, then add pepper, salt, cayenne, and grated cheese. Stir well over low heat.

Fill and serve

  1. Fill the tartlet cases with the mixture.

  2. Top each with a cross of anchovy strips.

  3. Garnish two with grated egg yolk and two with coraline pepper.

  4. Serve very hot.

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. Cheese + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,962 recipes

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

  2. Egg + anchovytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,330 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + anchovytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,697 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Pepper + anchovytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Breadcrumbs
Absorb the butter and water to form a stiff mixture that holds its shape in the cases.
Egg yolk
Binds the mixture and adds richness as it sets during cooking.
Cheese
Adds savory flavor and fat, and melts into the filling for a rich texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, carrying flavor through the mixture.

The step that matters

Stir in the breadcrumbs to a stiff mixture. The mixture must be stiff enough to hold its shape in the cases. Too little breadcrumb leaves it runny and it may spread or sink while cooking.

“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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