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Dessert

Tartlets Op Almond Paste

Almond paste tartlets filled with whipped cream or jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and peach match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 466 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Tartlets Op Almond Paste

Oven, in the book's wordsA very cool oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a very cool oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the shells

  1. Butter the smallest-sized patty pans.

  2. Line the pans with almond paste rolled as thin as possible.

  3. Cut the almond paste with a sharp knife close to the edges of the pans.

Dry and finish

  1. Dry the tartlets slowly in a cool oven at 300°F (150°C) until they are crisp and pale brown.

  2. Remove the tartlets from the pans when two-thirds done.

  3. Place the tartlets upside down on a sheet of paper.

  4. Return them to the oven until fully dried.

  5. Fill the tartlets with whipped cream or jam just before serving.

  6. If using jam, decorate with a small star cut from the almond paste.

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. Almond + peachtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together466 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Almond + buttertop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

  5. Butter + peachtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together860 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Almond paste
Forms the thin, crisp shell that holds the filling.
Butter
Greases the pans so the delicate shells release cleanly.
Whipped cream
Adds a soft, light filling that contrasts with the crisp shell.
Peach jam or apricot jam
Adds fruit sweetness and moisture as an alternative filling.

The step that matters

Drying the tartlets slowly. A low, cool oven dries the thin almond paste evenly so it becomes crisp without browning too fast or burning. Removing them from the pans at two-thirds dried lets the shells keep drying on all sides once turned upside down.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Coconutfits better
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against almond, butter, cream, sugar. 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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