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Dessert

Cranberry Tart

A tart of boiled cranberries in a flaky crust, topped with a lattice crust and browned with egg yolk and milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cranberry Tart

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the filling

  1. Bring cranberries and boiling water to a boil; cook gently, stirring frequently, and mash the berries until done, about 30 minutes.

  2. Remove from heat and stir in sugar to taste.

Make the crust

  1. To make the crust, rub butter into flour and sugar, add egg yolks, and mix with a knife.

  2. Add just enough ice water to form a firm, dry paste.

  3. Roll out the paste about ¼ inch thick and line a pie dish at least 1 inch deep.

  4. Trim the edges neatly and bake the empty crust in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 10 to 12 minutes.

Assemble and bake

  1. Line a pie dish with Flaky Pie Crust.

  2. Pour the cranberry mixture into the crust.

  3. Place strips of crust in a lattice over the top and arrange the edges neatly.

  4. Bake for about 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C).

  5. Brush the top of the crust with egg yolk mixed with milk, then return to the oven until nicely browned.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Egg + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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

Cranberries
Provide the tart, fruity body and bulk of the filling once cooked down and mashed.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart cranberry filling and balances its acidity.
Butter
Adds fat that makes the crust tender and flaky.
Flour
Forms the structure of the crust once mixed with fat and liquid.
Egg yolk
Gives the crust top a glossy, browned finish when brushed on.

The step that matters

Cook the cranberries until fully mashed. Cranberries contain a lot of pectin and skin; cooking them until soft lets the pectin set the filling, so it holds together when sliced rather than running out.

“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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