Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Tarts and Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the pastry
Soften ½ pound of butter.
Sift 1 pound of flour.
Rub in ½ pound of butter.
Place softened butter in cold water.
Mix with cold spring water to form a paste.
Roll the dough out.
Add the remaining butter in small pieces.
Fold the dough.
Roll the dough again.
Lightly flour the dough.
Roll the dough out.
Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour.
Fill and bake
Line tart pans with the rolled puff pastry.
Trim the edges of the pastry.
Fill the pastry with jam, marmalade, or stewed apple.
Create fine strings of paste.
Lay the paste strings across the filling.
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until lightly browned.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together3,437 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Orange + appletop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together2,230 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Butter
- Creates flaky layers as it stays in pieces within the dough and melts during baking.
- White flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the pastry its structure.
- Cold spring water
- Binds the flour and butter into a paste while keeping the butter cold.
- Raspberry or other jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavour to the filling.
- Orange marmalade
- Adds sweetness and bright, slightly bitter citrus flavour to the filling.
- Stewed apple
- Adds moisture and soft, sweet fruit flavour to the filling.
The step that matters
Rub in and fold the butter with cold dough. Keeping the butter cold and in distinct pieces creates flaky layers. If it softens or melts into the flour, the pastry turns dense rather than flaky, so chilling between rolls matters.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (butter, flour, orange, apple, sugar, lemon, cinnamon):
- Vanillafits better
- Cranberryfits better
- Figfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against butter, flour, orange, apple, sugar, lemon, cinnamon. 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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