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Dessert

Apple and Barberry Tart

A tart made with apples, barberries, and sugar in short pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Apple and Barberry Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

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

  2. Roll out the short pastry and line a tart pan.

  3. In a bowl, mix the apples and barberries with sugar.

  4. Pour the fruit mixture into the pastry-lined tart pan.

Bake

  1. Cover with another layer of pastry and seal the edges.

  2. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Short pastry
Forms the crust that holds the fruit and gives structure to the tart.
Apples
Provide bulk and moisture, softening as they bake into a tender filling.
Barberries
Add tartness that balances the sweetness of the sugar and the apples.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the pastry and fruit brown during baking.

The step that matters

Seal the edges of the top pastry. A tight seal keeps the fruit juices inside while the filling bubbles and thickens. A weak seal lets juice leak out, which can leave the filling dry and the tart base soggy.

“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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