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Dessert

Suffield Tartlets

A puff pastry tartlet filled with apple, lemon, clove, and butter mixture, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and apple are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,774 recipes. Both carry ethyl octanoate, which smells fruity, wine. The science ↓

Suffield Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Beat the butter and sugar together until creamy.

  2. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, and grated clove.

  3. Finely chop the apple and mix it into the butter mixture.

  4. Stir in the bread crumbs and the egg yolks until well combined.

Bake and top

  1. Line two dozen patty tins with puff pastry and fill each with the mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until pale brown.

  3. Whip the egg whites to stiff peaks, then stir in a little sugar.

  4. Top each tart with the whipped egg whites and re-bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for five minutes.

  5. Remove from the tins and 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. Clove + appletop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  2. Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Clove + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Bread + eggtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together22,662 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

  5. Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Butter
Creams with sugar to give the filling richness and a tender texture.
Eggs
Egg yolks bind the filling, and whipped whites add lightness to the topping.
Bread crumbs
Absorb moisture and help give the filling body.
Apple
Adds fruitiness and moisture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the whipped egg whites.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Egg whites need to be beaten until they hold stiff peaks so they trap air and stay light. Under-whipped whites will weep or flatten during the second bake, and over-whipped whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Parsleyfits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against butter, sugar, lemon, apple, bread, egg. 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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