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Dessert

Congress Tarts

A sweet tart made with sugar, ground almonds, egg whites, and pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 15,679 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Congress Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Line 3 dozen patty tins with pastry.

Make the filling

  1. Beat the sugar and egg whites together until well combined.

  2. Add the ground almonds and mix thoroughly.

Fill and bake

  1. Half-fill the lined patty tins with the almond mixture.

  2. Place strips of pastry on top of each tart.

  3. Bake for 45 minutes until golden.

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 + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

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

  3. Almond + eggtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,645 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

Egg whites
Whisked with sugar to give the filling structure and lift, setting as it bakes.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps the egg whites hold together and brown in the oven.
Ground almonds
Provide body, nutty flavour and moisture to the almond filling.
Puff or short pastry
Forms the crisp case and top layer that holds the filling in each tart.

The step that matters

Beat the sugar and egg whites until well combined. Sugar and egg whites need to be fully combined so the mixture sets evenly and does not separate or weep during baking. Uneven mixing can leave pockets of unset filling or uneven texture across the tarts.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits about as well
  4. Milletfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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