Why it works: Flour and syrup are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,540 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Golden Syrup Tarts
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the pastry
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
In a bowl, rub half the lard and margarine into the flour.
Gradually mix in water to form a stiff dough.
Roll out the dough and spread the remaining lard and margarine over it.
Fold and roll the dough several times, then roll out to ½ inch thickness.
Place the rolled dough in tart tins.
Fill and bake
Fill each tart with 1 teaspoon of Golden Syrup and drop in 2 teaspoons of bread crumbs.
Bake for 20 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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Flour + syruptop 16% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,540 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Flour + breadtop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together10,383 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Syrup + breadtop 34% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together178 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Flour and bread barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 10,383 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
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the structure of the pastry once mixed with water.
- Lard
- Adds flakiness and tenderness by staying solid in layers of dough.
- Margarine
- Adds fat for tenderness and flakiness in the pastry layers.
- Lyle's golden syrup
- Provides sweetness and a sticky, caramelised filling.
- Bread crumbs
- Soak up the syrup so the filling sets rather than running everywhere.
The step that matters
Rolling and folding the fat into the dough. Fat spread between layers of dough and folded in creates separate flaky layers when baked. If the fat softens and blends in too much, the pastry turns dense instead of flaky.
“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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