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Dessert

Apple Tart, Creamed

A tart of sliced apples cooked with sugar and butter, finished with custard sauce and baked in pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and sauce match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,147 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Apple Tart, Creamed

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the apples

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Pare, core, and cut the apples into thick slices.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the apples, sugar, butter, and 1-2 tablespoons of water.

  4. Cook gently until the apples are tender.

  5. Pass the apples through a fine sieve and adjust the sugar if needed.

Bake the tart

  1. Place the apple puree into a pie dish lined with pastry.

  2. Bake until the pastry has risen and set.

  3. Add the prepared custard and bake more slowly until the pastry is cooked and the custard is firm.

  4. 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

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. Sugar + saucetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,147 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Butter + saucetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together15,338 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Butter and sauce barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 15,338 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

Apples
Break down into a smooth puree that forms the body of the filling.
Moist sugar
Sweetens the apple puree and can be adjusted after sieving.
Butter
Adds richness and fat that softens the apple puree.
Custard sauce
Sets into a firm, creamy layer over the apple filling during baking.
Short crust pastry
Forms the crisp case that holds the apple puree and custard.

The step that matters

Adjust the sugar after sieving. Sieving changes the texture and sweetness of the cooked apples, so tasting and adjusting sugar at this point keeps the filling balanced before it is baked.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, sauce. 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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