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Dessert

Cheese Tartlets

A baked pastry dish filled with a cheese custard made from butter, flour, milk, eggs, and Parmesan.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cheese Tartlets

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare

  1. Roll out the puff pastry thinly.

  2. Butter nine or ten small patty pans.

  3. Cut the pastry into circles with a notched cutter.

  4. Line the pans with the pastry circles.

Make the cheese filling

  1. In a small saucepan, melt the butter and flour over medium heat.

  2. Add the milk and stir until it boils and thickens.

  3. Remove from heat.

  4. Mix in the egg yolks one at a time, ensuring each is fully incorporated.

  5. Add the salt, pepper, and cheese, and mix well.

  6. Gently fold in the stiffly beaten egg whites.

Bake and serve

  1. Spoon the mixture into the lined pans.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 15 minutes until risen.

  3. Serve immediately.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + parmesan cheesetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,163 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Parmesan cheese + peppertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,322 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

  5. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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 case that holds the filling.
Butter
Enriches the base and, with flour, forms the thickened roux.
Flour
Thickens the melted butter into a roux that sets the base.
Milk
Liquid that thickens with the roux into a smooth, creamy base.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and bind the filling; whites lighten it and help it rise.
Parmesan cheese
Adds savoury, salty flavour and richness to the filling.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites. Beaten whites trap air that lifts the filling as it bakes. Stirring vigorously or overmixing deflates them, so the tartlets rise less and turn dense. Fold gently, just until no white streaks remain.

“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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