Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Tourtes De Porame. — Apple Tarts
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Scald the apples, then peel and mash them until they become a marmalade.
Mix the apple marmalade with the egg yolks, egg whites, nutmeg, and sugar.
Line a tart dish with the puff pastry.
Spread the apple mixture over the pastry.
Bake and serve
Bake for 1 hour at 350°F (175°C).
Slide the tart out onto another dish and cover with powdered sugar.
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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Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,790 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together24,744 recipes
Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).
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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Nutmeg + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together23,364 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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
- Apples
- Form the bulk of the filling, cooking down into a soft, spreadable marmalade.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the filling and help it set into a custard-like texture as it bakes.
- Egg whites
- Add structure and lift to the filling, helping it set as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and promotes browning on the baked surface.
- Rich puff pastry
- Forms the buttery, flaky crust that holds the apple filling.
The step that matters
Mashing the apples into a marmalade. Apples must be cooked and mashed smooth so the filling spreads evenly and bakes into a uniform layer rather than leaving watery or chunky pockets.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, nutmeg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, nutmeg, 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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