Why it works: Apple and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 16,478 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Cranberry Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the fruit
Wash the cranberries and remove them from the stalks.
Peel, core, and slice the apples.
Stone and wash the prunes.
Make the filling
Combine the cranberries, apples, prunes, and sugar in a saucepan.
Stew the mixture until soft, about 30 minutes.
Pour the mixture into a pie dish and let it cool.
Bake
Cover with short crust and bake at 350°F (175°C) for about 30 minutes.
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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Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together16,478 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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
- Cranberries
- Provide tartness and bulk that becomes a soft, sharp filling when stewed.
- Apples
- Add body and pectin that helps the stewed fruit thicken and hold together.
- Prunes
- Add natural sweetness, depth, and moisture to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and balances the cranberries' tartness.
The step that matters
Stew the mixture until soft. Cranberries and apples need enough heat and time to break down; undercooked fruit stays firm and leaves the filling watery or uneven, while the sugar draws out juice that must be cooked down to a spoonable consistency.
“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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