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Dessert

Tartlets, Filbert

A small pastry tartlet filled with a hazelnut and almond mixture baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Tartlets, Filbert

12 tartlets
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. Blanch and peel the filberts, then chop them finely.

  2. Mix the cornflour smoothly with the milk and stir over medium heat until it thickens.

  3. Cream the egg yolks and sugar together until thick and smooth.

  4. Add the prepared nuts and ground almonds, then stir in the cornflour mixture.

Fill and bake

  1. Put the mixture into 12 patty pans lined with paste.

  2. Place 2 thin strips of paste across each tartlet, brush with milk, and sprinkle with castor sugar.

  3. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Filbert + almondtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetylpyrazine (roast).

  3. Filbert + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Filberts
Provide the main nutty flavour and a tender, slightly crunchy texture in the filling.
Ground almonds
Add body and a fine, moist texture to the filling.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk into a custard that sets the filling as it bakes.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a smooth, rich custard.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the top brown lightly in the oven.

The step that matters

Stirring the cornflour mixture over heat. Cornflour only thickens fully when heated and stirred, and it can lump if added unmixed. Lumps leave a grainy filling, so mix smoothly before thickening.

Swap the filbert

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

  1. Pistachiofits better
  2. Hazelnutfits better
  3. Brazil nutfits better
  4. Filbertthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, sugar, egg, cream. 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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