Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Jam Tartlets
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Roll out the puff pastry to ¼ inch thick.
Cut into rounds with a fancy cutter.
Cut the centers halfway through with a smaller cutter.
Brush the tops with beaten egg.
Bake and fill
Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 10 to 15 minutes.
Once baked, gently push the centers down with your finger.
Fill the centers with jam.
If desired, decorate with sugar icing.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Puff pastry
- Flaky layers that puff up in the oven to form the tartlet base.
- Jam
- Provides sweetness and fruity flavor in the filled center.
- Egg
- Beaten egg brushed on top promotes browning and a glossy finish.
The step that matters
Cut the centers halfway through. Cutting only partway keeps the rim intact so it rises around the center, while the sealed base stays flat. Cutting through fully lets the pastry collapse and the jam leak 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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