Skip to main content
Dessert

Invalid’s Fruit Tart

A tart of cooked apples topped with spongecake slices and a custard mixture, finished with whipped egg whites and baked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4,104 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Invalid’s Fruit Tart

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the base

  1. Grease a small pie dish.

  2. Layer it with cooked apples.

  3. Add slices of spongecake over the apples.

Make the custard

  1. Boil ½ pint of milk.

  2. Pour it over the beaten yolks of 3 eggs and 1 tablespoon of sugar.

  3. Stir the mixture over low heat until thick, but do not let it boil.

  4. Pour the thickened mixture over the spongecake and apples.

Top and bake

  1. Whip the egg whites with a tiny pinch of salt until stiff.

  2. Pile the whipped egg whites on top of the tart.

  3. Dredge with sugar.

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

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. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard and whites whip into the stiff topping that sets and browns.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens into a soft, smooth set when heated gently.
Spongecake
Soaks up the custard and holds its shape, giving the tart a soft, layered texture.
Cooked apples
Provide moisture and tart fruit flavour beneath the custard and sponge.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and, dredged on top, helps the meringue-like topping brown.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the custard boils they can curdle and turn grainy. Gentle heat and constant stirring keep it smooth and thick.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against milk, egg, 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.

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipesApple MeringueApple Meringue75 recipesDried Apple CakeDried Apple Cake51 recipes