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-paste or cream-crust.
Assemble and bake
Dip the peeled and cored apples in water and arrange them compactly in the dish, higher in the center than at the sides.
Sprinkle the apples with pounded sugar, grated lemon rind, and lemon juice.
If desired, after baking, use a little egg white to attach almond-paste leaves on top.
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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Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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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 + almondtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,025 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,130 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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, once baked, soften into a tender filling.
- Pounded sugar
- Sweetens the tart and helps draw out juices as the apples cook.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that balances the sweetness and brightens the apple flavor.
- Puff-paste or cream-crust
- Forms the tart shell and border that hold the apples in place.
The step that matters
Arranging the apples compactly, higher in the center. Apples shrink and release moisture as they bake. A tight, domed arrangement keeps the filling from sinking and leaving gaps, and helps the tart bake evenly.
Swap the almond
The recipe marks almond as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, lemon, cream, egg):
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
- Hazelnutfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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