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Dessert

Cream Strawberry Tarts

A puff pastry tart layered with strawberries and a sweetened cream filling.

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 ↓

Cream 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.

Assemble the tart

  1. Pick over the strawberries and arrange them in layers in a deep pie tin lined with puff pastry, sprinkling sugar thickly between each layer.

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

  3. Cover with a thick crust, making a slit in the top.

Bake and make the cream

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) until golden.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the cream until it boils.

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

  4. Boil the mixture for a few moments until smooth, then set aside to cool.

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

  6. 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. Milk + eggtop 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

Strawberries
Provide the fruit filling and juice that give the tart its flavour and moisture.
Sugar
Sweetens the berries and draws out their juice as it sits.
Puff pastry
Forms the flaky, golden crust that holds the filling.
Cream
Gives the filling a rich, smooth body and fat for mouthfeel.
Egg whites
Add structure and help the cream mixture set when heated.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream mixture as it boils, giving a smooth set.

The step that matters

Boil the cream mixture until smooth. Cornstarch only thickens fully when it reaches a boil, and the cooked egg whites need heat to set. 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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