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Dessert

Apple Tarts a LA Josephine

Apple tarts filled with spiced apples, Madeira, rum, Brazil nuts, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Tarts a LA Josephine

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple filling

  1. Peel and quarter the apples.

  2. Place the apples in a deep dish with sugar, lemon peel, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.

  3. Cook the apples until the mixture is bubbling.

  4. Mash the apples with a wooden spoon.

  5. Add Madeira and rum to the mixture.

  6. Cook until the mixture thickens enough to jelly.

  7. Remove the mixture from the heat.

  8. Mix in orange juice, Brazil nuts, and cream before it cools.

Bake and serve

  1. Line tart dishes with short crust pastry.

  2. Bake the lined tart dishes until done.

  3. Fill the baked pastry with the apple mixture.

  4. 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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 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

Cooking apples
Provide the bulk of the filling, cooking down into a soft, mashable base.
Castor sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples thicken into a jelly-like mixture as they cook.
Brazil nuts
Add body and a rich, nutty texture to the filling.
Rich cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smoother, creamier texture.
Light short crust pastry
Forms the crisp, sturdy case that holds the apple filling.

The step that matters

Mixing in the cream and nuts before the filling cools. Cream and nuts folded into a hot, thickened filling blend evenly; once it cools and sets, they can clump and fail to incorporate smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, rum, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, rum, orange. 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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