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Dessert

Common Lemon Tartlets

A small pastry filled with a lemon custard made from eggs, sugar, flour, butter, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Potato and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,230 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Common Lemon Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Line patty pans with thinly rolled puff pastry.

Make the filling

  1. Whisk the eggs until very light.

  2. Gradually add the sugar and whisk for 5 minutes.

  3. Stir in the potato flour or common flour.

  4. Melt the butter until just lukewarm and add it to the mixture.

  5. Mix in the strained juice and grated rind of the lemons.

Bake

  1. Fill the pastry cases two-thirds full with the mixture.

  2. Bake for about 20 minutes.

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. Potato + lemontop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whisked to a light foam, they set the custard and give the tartlets structure.
Sugar
Whisking it in stabilises the foam and adds sweetness that balances the lemon.
Potato flour or common flour
Gives the filling body so it sets firm rather than runny.
Butter
Adds richness and a smooth, tender texture to the filling.
Lemon juice and rind
Provides acidity and aroma, and the acid helps the filling set.

The step that matters

Whisk the eggs and sugar until very light. Whisking traps air in the eggs and dissolves the sugar, creating a light foam. Under-whisking leaves a dense, heavy filling, while the gentle heat of the oven then sets the mixture into a delicate custard.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Asparagusfits better
  2. Leekfits better
  3. Shallotfits better
  4. Potatothe original

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