Skip to main content
Dessert

Tartlets, Balmoral

A small tartlet filled with a mixture of cake crumbs, glace cherries, candied peel, and cornflour.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Butter and potato are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,456 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Tartlets, Balmoral

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Make the short crust paste and line 12 patty pans.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar until thick and white.

Make the filling

  1. Stir in the yolk of the egg, then add the cake crumbs, cherries, peel, and cornflour.

  2. Whisk the egg white until stiff, then gently fold it into the mixture.

  3. Fill the patty cases with the preparation.

Top and bake

  1. Place 2 narrow strips of paste on top of each tartlet.

  2. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Butter + potatotop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Potato + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,978 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
The yolk binds the filling and the whisked white lightens it so the tartlets stay tender.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the filling a rich, tender texture.
Castor sugar
Creamed with butter, it helps create a light, thick base and adds sweetness.
Cake crumbs
Add body and softness to the filling, absorbing moisture as it bakes.
Cornflour or potato flour
Thickens the filling so it sets softly rather than running when baked.

The step that matters

Folding in the stiff egg white. Whisked egg white holds air that lightens the mixture. Folding gently keeps that air in, so the filling rises and bakes tender rather than dense and flat.

Swap the potato

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

  1. Sweet potatofits better
  2. Asparagusfits better
  3. Leekfits about as well
  4. Potatothe original

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

You might also like

Deep-Fried Potato BallsDeep-Fried Potato Balls119 recipesOrange Potato BreadOrange Potato Bread80 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes