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Dessert

Almond Tartlets

Almond Tartlets are small pastries filled with a creamy almond custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Almond Tartlets

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

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

  2. Roll out the light pastry and line pattypans.

Make the filling

  1. In a saucepan, boil the cream with the sugar and egg whites, stirring constantly until only 1 cup remains.

  2. In a bowl, mix the egg yolks with the butter and ground almonds.

  3. Combine the boiled cream mixture with the almond mixture.

Bake

  1. Fill the tartlets with the mixture and bake until set.

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. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  4. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and moisture, and reduces to a thicker, creamier base for the filling.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps thicken the boiled cream as it reduces.
Egg yolks
Enrich the filling and help it set into a firm, custard-like texture when baked.
Egg whites
Add body to the boiled cream mixture and help give the filling structure.
Butter
Adds fat for a rich mouthfeel and a tender texture.
Sweet almonds
Provide the main almond flavor and a fine, nutty body to the filling.

The step that matters

Stirring the cream while it boils. The cream and sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pan and the egg whites can curdle if left unattended. Constant stirring keeps the heat even and the mixture smooth while it reduces to one cup, which concentrates the flavor and thickens the filling.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Pecansfits about as well
  3. Filbertfits less well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

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