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Dessert

Apple Cake, or German Tart

A baked apple tart with a buttery crust and apple marmalade filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,598 recipes. Both carry methyl cinnamate, which smells strawberry. The science ↓

Apple Cake, or German Tart

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.

Make the pastry

  1. In a bowl, work together the butter and flour until they resemble fine crumbs.

  2. Add a pinch of salt, egg yolks, and enough water to form a firm, smooth paste.

  3. Butter a plain tin cake or pie mold generously.

  4. Roll out the paste thinly.

  5. Place the mold on the paste.

  6. Trim to size.

  7. Cover the bottom of the mold with the paste.

  8. Cut a band for the sides.

  9. Press the band on, moistening the edges with water.

Make the apple marmalade

  1. In a pot, boil the apples, powdered sugar, lemon juice, fresh butter, and cinnamon over low heat.

  2. Increase the heat until smooth and dry.

  3. Cool the marmalade completely before filling the mold.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out a cover for the tart.

  2. Lay it over the marmalade without touching it.

  3. Seal the edges.

  4. Trim off excess paste.

  5. Sprinkle with powdered sugar.

  6. Bake until golden.

  7. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

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. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Provides richness and tenderness to the pastry as it is worked into the flour.
Flour
Forms the structure of the pastry paste and holds the tart shape.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the paste into a smooth, firm dough.
Apples
Supply the main filling and fruity flavor once cooked into a marmalade.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the apple marmalade and helps it cook to a thick, smooth texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet apple filling.

The step that matters

Cook the marmalade until smooth and dry. Apples hold a lot of water. Cooking them down until thick and dry keeps the filling from soaking the pastry and making the bottom soggy. Cooling it completely before filling also prevents the pastry from softening and the cover from melting into the filling.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, egg, sugar, lemon, cinnamon. 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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