Name: Cherry Tart
Ingredients: 1½ lbs cherries; 2 small tablespoons moist sugar; ½ lb short crust

Cherry Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

1½ lbs cherries
2 small tablespoons moist sugar
½ lb short crust

Directions

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

Prepare

Remove the stems from the cherries and place them in a deep pie dish with the sugar.
Insert a small cup upside down in the center of the dish.

Assemble and bake

Make a short crust with ½ lb of flour and create a border around the edge of the dish.
Cover the cherries with the crust and decorate the edges.
Bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 30 to 40 minutes.
Sprinkle finely sifted sugar over the tart and serve hot or cold.

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries: Provide the fruit filling, whose juices cook down into the tart's moist centre.
Moist sugar: Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out juice that thickens into a syrup.
Short crust: Forms a rich, tender pastry shell and lid that holds the fruit while baking.

“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.