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Creamed Tartlets

A tartlet filled with apricot jam and thick boiled custard, topped with a light icing of whipped egg whites and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Apricot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,630 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Creamed Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the tartlets

  1. Line pattypans with very fine paste.

  2. Add a layer of apricot jam to each pattypan.

  3. Pour thick boiled custard over the jam.

Make the icing

  1. Whisk the egg whites to soft peaks.

  2. Mix sifted sugar with the egg whites.

Bake

  1. Spread the icing lightly over the tartlets.

  2. Bake in a gentle oven at 300°F (150°C) for 20 to 30 minutes.

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. Apricot + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,630 recipes

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

  2. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Apricot + eggtop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,712 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

Egg whites
Whipped to soft peaks, they form a light meringue-style icing that sets and browns in the oven.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the egg white icing and helps it stay stable when baked.
Apricot jam
Adds fruity sweetness and a layer of flavour beneath the custard.
Thick boiled custard
Provides a rich, creamy filling that sets as the tartlets bake.

The step that matters

Spreading the icing lightly. Whipped egg white foam collapses and deflates when heavily handled or overmixed, so it should be spread gently to keep it airy and avoid pressing it down into the custard.

Swap the apricot

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Apricotthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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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