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Dessert

Open Apple Tart

A tart filled with cooked apples, sugar, lemon, nutmeg, wine, eggs, and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Open Apple Tart

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

  1. In a saucepan, combine apples, sugar, lemon rind and juice, nutmeg, and white wine.

  2. Cook over medium heat until the mixture becomes a rich marmalade.

Make the filling

  1. Let the mixture cool slightly, then stir in the beaten eggs and cream until well combined.

Bake and serve

  1. Prepare a tart shell with pastry, about ¼ inch thick.

  2. Pour the apple mixture into the tart shell and bake at 350°F (175°C) for 35-40 minutes.

  3. Serve hot.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Apple + white winetop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together372 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  5. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Break down into a thick marmalade that forms the body of the filling.
Eggs
Set when baked, binding the filling into a sliceable custard-like texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a softer, smoother texture to the filling.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and helps thicken it into a marmalade as it cooks.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the apples and sugar.

The step that matters

Cool the apple mixture slightly before adding the eggs. Adding beaten eggs to a very hot mixture can scramble them, leaving a grainy texture instead of a smooth, set filling.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, nutmeg, white wine, egg, cream):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, nutmeg, white wine, egg, cream. 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.

More apple tart recipes

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