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Dessert

Strawberry Tart

A tart with a buttery crust and fresh strawberries, topped with custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Strawberry Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA good oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a good oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the crust

  1. Mix flour and butter until crumbly, then add cold water to form a dough.

  2. Line a pie pan with the crust, filling it two-thirds full with fresh strawberries.

Fill and top

  1. Sprinkle the strawberries lightly with sugar.

  2. Cover with a thicker crust, without pinching the edges down.

  3. Lift off the top crust and pour cold custard over the hot fruit.

  4. Replace the top crust and let the tart cool completely before serving.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven until the crust is golden and the fruit is bubbly.

  2. Lift off the top crust and pour cold custard over the hot fruit.

  3. Replace the top crust and let the tart cool completely before serving.

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. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

All-purpose flour
Forms the main structure of the crust once mixed with water.
Butter
Coats the flour so the crust turns out tender and flaky rather than tough.
Fresh strawberries
Supply the juicy, flavorful filling that bubbles and sets as it bakes.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the strawberries.

The step that matters

Bake until the fruit is bubbly. Bubbling shows the strawberry juices have reached cooking heat, which helps the filling thicken and cooks the crust through. Pulling the tart early leaves a runny filling and pale, doughy base.

“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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