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The World-famous Tarte Tatin

Not only is this dessert delicious, it was invented quite near where I was staying by the Tatin sisters. The story goes that one of them was making an apple tart but, for whatever reason, made a mistake and left it too long in the oven. However, she thought she could salvage it, so she ended up turning it upside down and her guests went mad for it. I wish all my cooking mistakes had such happy results. If you want to see a video of this being made, go to www.jamieoliver.com/how-to. It's dead simple and when you've made it once you'll have the hang of it. Hopefully, this recipe will give you the basics so that you'll be able to stretch it by using pears, quinces, peaches, apricots or a mixture… I'm sure the sisters would love the fact that people were bending this recipe to make it their own. Light golden puff pastry, soft juicy fruit and crisp caramel is a great combination! You could serve this with a spoonful of crème fraîche or whipped cream, but personally I love the contrast between the warm tart and cold ice cream.

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The World-famous Tarte Tatin

Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,501 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

The World-famous Tarte Tatin

Serves 6

Ingredients

Directions

Step-by-step directions aren't available for this recipe. See the full recipe at the source →

By jamieoliver. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,501 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and vanilla share little aroma chemistry, yet 35,032 recipes mention both: they likely work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the apple

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

  1. Raisinbetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Blueberrybetter flavor fit
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, vanilla, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).