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Dessert

Filbert Cream Tartlets

A pastry filled with a creamy filbert mixture, baked and glazed.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Filbert and butter work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 52 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Filbert Cream Tartlets

two dozen 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 the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a mortar, pound the filberts with water to prevent oiliness.

  3. Add butter, sugar, noyau, and egg yolks to the pounded filberts and mix well.

Bake and glaze

  1. Line two dozen tartlet molds with short pastry.

  2. Fill the molds with the mixture and bake until done.

  3. Remove tartlets from molds and place on a clean baking sheet.

  4. Glaze the surface with a mixture of ⅓ cup white noyau and 2 ounces glazing sugar until thick.

  5. Let the tartlets dry in a cool place.

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. Filbert + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together52 recipes

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

  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. Filbert + eggtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

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

What each ingredient does

Filberts
Provide the nutty base of the filling, and their oil gives the paste its richness.
Butter
Adds fat for a tender, rich texture in the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps give the mixture body.
Egg yolks
Bind the filling and set during baking to give a creamy structure.
White noyau
Adds aromatic flavour to both the filling and the glaze.

The step that matters

Pounding the filberts with water. Filberts release oil when crushed, which can make the paste greasy. A little water helps keep the oil dispersed so the filling stays smooth rather than oily.

Swap the filbert

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

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pecansfits better
  3. Filbertthe original
  4. Walnutfits about as well

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.

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