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Dessert

Almond Tarts

Almond tarts made with ground almonds, sugar, wine, bread, cream, and spinach juice, baked and thickened with candied orange.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,115 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Almond Tarts

Ingredients

Directions

Make the filling

  1. Blanch the almonds and grind them finely in a mortar.

  2. Mix in the white wine and sugar.

  3. Add grated bread, nutmeg, cream, and spinach juice for coloring.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake gently until done.

  2. Thicken with candied orange or citron before serving.

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. Almond + nutmegtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,115 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Nutmeg + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Almond + spinachtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together352 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  4. Almond + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,125 recipes

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

  5. Nutmeg + orangetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,746 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).

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

What each ingredient does

Almonds
Provide the main body and rich flavour of the filling once ground fine.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the filling brown as it bakes.
Grated bread
Soaks up liquid and helps the filling hold its structure.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, giving a softer, silkier texture.
White wine
Adds moisture and a light acidity to the almond mixture.

The step that matters

Bake gently until done. Low, gentle heat sets the egg-free almond mixture evenly without drying it or scorching the surface. High heat can cause the filling to crack, toughen, or burn before the centre is set.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, white wine, sugar, bread, nutmeg, cream, spinach):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, white wine, sugar, bread, nutmeg, cream, spinach. 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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