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Dessert

Creamed Strawberry Tarts

A tart of layered strawberries topped with a creamy custard, baked in puff pastry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Creamed Strawberry Tarts

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

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Arrange the strawberries in layers in a deep pie tin lined with puff pastry, sprinkling ½ cup of sugar between each layer.

  3. Fill the pie tin with strawberries and pour in some of the juice.

Bake the crust

  1. Cover with a thick crust, making a slit in the top, and bake until golden.

Make the cream

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream until boiling.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites, 1 tablespoon of sugar, and cornstarch mixed with cold milk.

  3. Boil for a few moments until smooth, then set aside to cool.

Finish and serve

  1. Pour the cream mixture into the pie through the slit in the crust.

  2. Serve cold, dusted with powdered sugar.

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

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

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Fresh strawberries
Provide the fruit filling, supplying juice and flavour that soften during baking.
Heavy cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body to the filling.
Egg whites
Help thicken and set the cream mixture as they cook.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture when boiled, giving it a smooth, stable texture.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the strawberries and draws out their juice.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, flaky crust that browns in the oven and holds the filling.

The step that matters

Boil the cream mixture until smooth. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and the egg whites must be cooked through. Stop too early and the filling stays runny or grainy.

“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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