Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry Tart
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pick and wash the cranberries in several waters.
Place the cranberries in a dish and add the lemon juice and sugar.
Cover the mixture with puff pastry or tart paste.
Bake and serve
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for 45 minutes.
If using tart paste, remove it from the oven 5 minutes before it's done and ice it.
Return it to the oven and serve cold.
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.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart filling and its sharp, fruity flavor.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart and balances the cranberries' natural tartness.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cranberry flavor.
- Puff pastry or tart paste
- Forms the crust that encloses the filling and browns in the oven.
The step that matters
Icing the tart paste before it finishes baking. Removing the tart paste 5 minutes early and icing it, then returning it to the oven, depends on timing. Too long in the oven can over-brown or dry the crust, while too early leaves the filling underdone.
“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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