Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry 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
Pick and wash the cranberries in several waters.
Place the cranberries in a dish and add the lemon juice and powdered sugar.
Cover the mixture with puff pastry or tart paste.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 45 minutes.
If using tart paste, remove from the oven 5 minutes before done, ice it, then return to the oven.
Serve cold.
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.
-
Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart filling's bulk and tart flavor once cooked.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cranberries and helps soften their tartness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cranberry flavor.
- Puff pastry or tart paste
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Removing and icing the tart paste. If tart paste is used, timing matters: removing it 5 minutes before done and icing it lets the glaze set on the crust without overbaking. Returning it to the oven then finishes the crust's browning.
“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.
More cranberry tart recipes
You might also like
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Lemon Ice147 recipes
Lemon Sherbet103 recipes
Lemon Custard64 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.