Why it works: Egg and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 44,316 recipes. Both carry (e,e)-2,4-decadienal, which smells fatty, deep fried. The science ↓
To Make Pate Shells From Puff Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Roll the puff paste to a thickness of ¼ inch.
Cut into rounds using a fluted or plain cutter.
For one paté shell, use a whole round; cut a hole in the center of two rounds with a small cutter.
Moisten the edge of each circle with a little water.
Place the two rings with holes on top of the whole round, pressing the edges lightly together.
Glaze the top with the egg, avoiding the edges.
Bake in a separate pan until golden, as they require less baking time.
Fill the tart shells with jelly, jam, preserves, or lemon cream after cooking the lemon cream in a double boiler.
Serve the filled tart shells cold.
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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Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Egg and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
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