Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓
Invalid Fruit Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Peel, core, and slice the apples.
Stew the sliced apples with enough sugar to sweeten.
Pour the cooked apples into a pie dish.
Make the custard and assemble
Slice the sponge cakes and place them over the apples.
Boil the milk.
Pour the boiled milk over the yolks of the eggs.
Add a little sugar and pour this mixture over the sponge cakes and apples.
Bake and top
Place the dish in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 minutes.
Beat the egg whites to a stiff froth.
Sweeten the beaten egg whites with 2 teaspoons of castor sugar.
Pile the beaten egg whites on top of the tart.
Return the tart to the oven for a few minutes to harden and brown slightly.
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.
-
Apple + milktop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4,104 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).
-
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
-
Egg + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Apples
- Stewed to soften and sweeten, forming the fruit base of the tart.
- Sponge cakes
- Absorb the custard and apple juices, giving the tart a soft, moist layer.
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the milk into a custard; whites are whipped to form the topping that sets and browns.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when heated with the egg yolks.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the beaten egg whites and helps them stay stiff and brown in the oven.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites to a stiff froth. Egg whites must be beaten until stiff and free of any yolk or grease, because they trap air to form a stable meringue. Underbeaten or greasy whites collapse and fail to hold their shape on top of the tart.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, 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.
More fruit tart recipes
You might also like
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Apple Cake80 recipes
Apple Meringue75 recipes
Dried Apple Cake51 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.