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Plum Custard Tartlets

A tartlet filled with a plum custard and topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Plum Custard Tartlets

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the filling

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. Sieve the greengage plums into a bowl.

  3. Whisk together the sieved plums, sugar, and egg yolks until light and foamy.

Bake and top the tartlets

  1. Fill small patty pans with puff pastry and bake until light brown.

  2. Fill the baked pastry shells with the plum mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then add powdered sugar and spread over the plum filling.

  4. Return the filled shells to the oven for a few moments until the meringue is set.

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

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

  2. Plum + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,313 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Plum + eggtop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together794 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Greengage plums
Provide the fruit flavour and tart acidity that balance the sweet custard.
Sugar
Sweetens the plum mixture and helps give it a smooth, set texture.
Egg yolks
Thicken the plum mixture into a creamy custard as they cook.
Egg whites
Whip into a stiff foam that forms the meringue topping and sets in the oven.
Powdered sugar
Dissolves easily into the whipped whites to sweeten and stabilise the meringue.

The step that matters

Returning the filled shells to the oven. Meringue sets and browns quickly in the heat, so it can scorch or weep if left too long. Watch it closely and remove it once it is just set.

Swap the plum

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Plumthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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