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Dessert

Raspberry Tarts

A pastry tart filled with raspberries, sugar, cream, and egg yolks, baked twice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Raspberry Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA gentle oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a gentle oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Assemble

  1. Roll out the thin puff pastry and lay it in a patty pan.

  2. Add raspberries and sprinkle fine sugar over them.

  3. Cover the tart with a lid.

Bake

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C).

Add the custard and finish

  1. Cut the tart open.

  2. Add cream, beaten egg yolks, and sugar.

  3. Bake again until set and ready to serve.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + eggtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Cream and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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

Thin puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky case that holds the filling.
Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavour and a tart, acidic contrast to the sugar.
Fine sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the raspberries.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a soft, smooth texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken and set the cream mixture into a custard when heated.

The step that matters

Bake again until set and ready to serve.. Egg yolks set as they heat, but if they are overbaked they curdle and turn grainy and watery. Check for a gentle wobble in the centre and stop baking once the custard is just firm.

“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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