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Dessert

Mirlitons

Mirlitons are small puff pastry tartlets filled with a sweet batter of eggs, sugar, ratafias, candied orange flowers, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Mirlitons

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the batter

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

  2. In a basin with a spout, combine the eggs, sugar, crushed ratafias, crushed orange-flowers, melted butter, and salt. Mix well with a wooden spoon until the batter is creamy.

Fill and bake

  1. Pour the batter into 24 small deep tartlet shells lined with puff-paste trimmings. Sprinkle a thick layer of sifted sugar over the top.

  2. Bake in the oven until light fawn in color and the center rises about ½ inch.

  3. Serve warm.

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. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  5. Orange + buttertop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Sugar and orange barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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

Eggs
Set the batter and give the tartlets their light, risen custard structure as they bake.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, as a sifted topping, helps the surface brown to a light fawn color.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture to the batter, giving a tender crumb.
Ratafias
Contribute a crushed almond-like flavor and texture to the filling.
Candied orange-flowers
Add a floral, sweet aroma and flavor throughout the batter.

The step that matters

Baking until light fawn with the center risen. Bake only until the surface is light fawn and the center has risen about ½ inch. Overbaking dries the egg-and-sugar custard and can cause the top to darken too much or crack.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Orangethe original

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