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Dessert

Orange Tartlets

A tartlet filled with a buttery orange custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,371 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the filling

  1. Remove the rinds of the oranges as thinly as possible and chop them finely.

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

  3. Beat in each egg yolk separately, then add 2 tablespoons of orange juice, the orange rind, and vanilla essence.

  4. Whisk the egg white until stiff and gently fold it into the mixture.

Bake and finish

  1. Pour the mixture into tartlet molds lined with short crust paste.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for 15 to 20 minutes.

  3. When three-quarters baked, sprinkle with caster sugar.

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. Orange + vanillatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,371 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Butter + vanillatop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the filling, while the whisked white adds lightness and airy structure.
Butter
Creamed with sugar, it traps air and gives the filling a rich, tender texture.
Sugar
Creaming with butter creates a light base and adds sweetness that balances the orange.
Oranges
Juice and finely chopped rind supply the main citrus flavour and aroma and some acidity.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg white. Whisked egg white holds air that gives the tartlets lightness. Stirring it in vigorously knocks out that air, leaving a dense filling, so fold gently and keep the mixture airy.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, egg, vanilla. 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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