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Dessert

Apple Tart

Apple Tart is a pastry filled with apples, eggs, butter, nutmeg, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and nutmeg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,790 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Tart

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 the filling

  1. Scald the apples and let them cool, then remove the skins.

  2. Beat the apple pulp until fine.

  3. Mix in the egg yolks and egg whites, then beat until well combined.

  4. Add grated nutmeg and sugar to taste.

  5. Melt the butter and beat it until it reaches a thick cream consistency.

Assemble and bake

  1. Roll out the puff pastry and line a tart pan with it.

  2. Pour the apple mixture into the pastry shell without covering it.

  3. Bake in a 400°F (200°C) oven for 15 minutes.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from the oven, transfer to a dish, and sprinkle with finely beaten 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. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Egg + nutmegtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together24,744 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and nutmeg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 24,744 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

Apples
Provide the bulk and flavour of the filling as the pulp is beaten smooth.
Egg yolks
Add richness and help bind the filling so it sets when baked.
Egg whites
Add lightness and help the filling set into a custard-like texture.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, giving the filling a smooth, creamy texture.
Puff pastry
Forms a flaky, crisp shell that holds the apple mixture while baking.

The step that matters

Beating the butter to a thick cream. Butter beaten to a thick, creamy consistency blends evenly into the filling. If it stays melted or lumpy, the fat separates and the texture of the filling becomes uneven.

Swap the apple

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, nutmeg, sugar, butter. 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.

More apple tart recipes

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