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Dessert

Apricot Tart

A pastry tart filled with apricots and sugar, baked until golden.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,458 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Apricot Tart

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 fruit

  1. Peel and halve the apricots.

  2. Remove the stones and place the kernels in a bowl with the apricots.

  3. Sprinkle the apricots with fine sugar.

Assemble the tart

  1. Butter a tart pan.

  2. Line the pan with a thin layer of short pastry.

  3. Brush the pastry with egg.

  4. Arrange the apricots in the pan in a regular order.

  5. Cover with another thin layer of pastry.

  6. Seal the edges well.

  7. Make a small hole in the top.

  8. Crimp the edges.

  9. Brush the edges with egg.

  10. Sprinkle the edges with powdered sugar.

Bake

  1. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until golden.

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. Apricot + buttertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,458 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Apricots
Provide the fruit filling, with sweetness and tartness as the main flavour.
Fine sugar
Sweetens the apricots and draws out some of their juice.
Butter
Greases the pan so the tart releases cleanly and adds richness.
Short pastry
Forms the crust that encloses the fruit and gives a crisp, tender texture.
Egg
Brushed on the pastry to promote browning and a glossy golden finish.
Powdered sugar
Sprinkled on the edges, where it caramelises lightly for sweetness and colour.

The step that matters

Sealing the edges and making the vent hole. A tight seal keeps the apricot juice inside while the tart bakes. The small hole lets steam escape so the crust does not swell or burst.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonfits better
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, butter, 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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