Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
A Good Apple Tart
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.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Prepare a tart dish with a border of puff pastry or cream crust.
Dip the apples in water and arrange them compactly in the dish, higher in the center than at the sides.
Add the flavorings
Sprinkle the sugar over the apples, adding more if they are very acidic.
Add the grated lemon rind and juice to enhance the flavor.
Finish
If desired, after baking, attach ready-baked almond-paste leaves with a little egg white.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together7,551 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the tart and soften into a tender filling as they bake.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the tartness of the apples.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the apple flavor.
- Puff pastry or cream crust
- Forms the border that holds the apples and bakes into a crisp edge.
The step that matters
Arranging the apples. Packing the apples compactly and building them higher in the center keeps the tart from sinking into a flat, watery layer. Adjusting sugar to the apples' acidity matters because very tart fruit needs more sweetness to taste balanced.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Orangefits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cream, egg. 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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