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 the filling
Pour the juice from the cranberries into a bowl.
Wash the cranberries in plenty of water, remove any bad ones, and place them in a pot.
Add the sugar and lemon juice to the cranberries.
Gently pour the juice from the bowl into the pot, leaving behind any dirt and sediment.
Mix everything together and let it sit while you prepare the tart.
Assemble and bake
Line the bottom of your dish with puff pastry, about ¼ inch thick.
Place the cranberries on the pastry without any juice.
Cover with another layer of puff pastry, about ½ inch thick, and seal the edges.
Ice the top and bake for 45 to 60 minutes, depending on size.
Serve
Simmer the remaining juice for a few minutes and serve it in a small sauce tureen with the tart.
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's tart fruit filling, which is balanced by the sugar.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cranberries and helps soften their sharp, tart flavor.
- Puff pastry
- Forms the flaky top and bottom crust that encloses the filling.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the cranberry flavor.
The step that matters
Place the cranberries without any juice. Excess juice left on the cranberries can soak into the pastry and make the bottom crust soggy, so the fruit should be drained before assembly.
“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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