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Dessert

Custard Tarts

A pastry tart filled with a sweet apple custard made from apples, butter, sugar, eggs, and breadcrumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,551 recipes. Both carry trans-2-nonenal, which smells cardboard, fatty. The science ↓

Custard Tarts

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 apples

  1. Peel and core the apples, then cut them into pieces.

  2. Place the apples in a saucepan with a little water and cook until soft.

  3. Pass the cooked apples through a sieve, then add the grated lemon rind and strained lemon juice.

  4. Stir in the breadcrumbs.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

  2. Combine the apple mixture with the butter and egg mixture, stirring well.

Bake and serve

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and line pans with it.

  2. Fill each pastry shell with the apple mixture, sprinkle with sugar, and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 20 minutes.

  3. Once baked, remove from the tins and 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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Butter + lemontop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Give the filling its bulk and fruity flavour once cooked down and sieved.
Eggs
Set the custard-like filling and add richness and structure when baked.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and a tender texture when creamed with sugar.
Breadcrumbs
Absorb moisture from the apple mixture, helping it thicken slightly.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky shell that holds the filling while baking.

The step that matters

Cooling the apples before combining. Eggs can scramble or curdle if added to hot fruit, so the sieved apple mixture should be allowed to cool somewhat before it is stirred into the creamed butter and egg mixture.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, lemon, 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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