Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Cherry Tart
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Pick the stems from the cherries and remove the pits.
Place a small cup upside down in the center of a small pie dish.
Fill the dish with the cherries. Add sugar and flour.
Assemble and bake
Roll out the pastry. Create a border around the edge of the dish. Cover with a top crust. Decorate the edges.
Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until golden.
Remove from the oven.
Add meringue and serve
Cover with a thin meringue made from the whipped egg white and powdered sugar. Return to the oven with the door open just long enough to set the meringue.
Serve plain. Dust with powdered sugar before serving.
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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Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Cherries
- Provide the fruit filling and its tart juice, which cooks down into the sweet-sour centre.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and draws out juice from the cherries as they bake.
- All-purpose flour
- Thickens the cherry juices so the filling sets rather than running out.
- Puff pastry or shortcrust pastry
- Forms the crust, which bakes golden and crisp around the filling.
- Egg white
- Whipped with powdered sugar to form a thin meringue that sets and browns lightly on top.
The step that matters
Setting the meringue. Egg white whipped with powdered sugar sets quickly with dry heat but can weep or brown too fast if the oven is too hot or left closed too long. A brief, door-open bake sets it without overcooking the pastry.
“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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