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Dessert

Tartlets, Balmoral

A small tartlet filled with a mixture of cake crumbs, cherries, candied peel, and corn flour, topped with short crust.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and corn are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,345 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Tartlets, Balmoral

12 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

  1. Make the short crust paste and line 12 patty pans.

Make the filling

  1. Cream the butter and sugar until thick and white.

  2. Stir in the yolk of the egg, then add the cake crumbs, cherries, peel, and corn flour.

  3. Whip the egg white until stiff, then gently fold it into the mixture.

  4. Fill the patty cases with the preparation.

Bake

  1. Cross 2 narrow strips of paste on top of each tartlet.

  2. Bake for about 20 minutes at 350°F (175°C).

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. Butter + corntop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,345 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + corntop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creamed with sugar to trap air, giving the filling a light, tender texture.
Castor sugar
Creamed with butter to help build a thick, pale, aerated base.
Egg
Yolk enriches the filling and whipped white adds lightness and structure when folded in.
Corn flour or potato flour
Starch that softens the filling and gives a delicate, tender crumb.
Cake crumbs
Adds body and moisture to the filling as a base for the fruit.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped egg white. Fold gently so the air whipped into the egg white is kept. Stirring hard knocks out air, leaving the tartlets dense instead of light.

“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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