Why it works: Milk and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓
Chantilly Tartlets
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 shells
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Line patty pans with short crust pastry and half fill them with apricot jam.
Bake until golden.
Make the custard
In a saucepan, combine sugar and flour.
Gradually add cold milk to make a batter.
Beat the eggs and stir them into the batter.
Cook over low heat until it thickens like custard.
Let it cool.
Fill the baked tartlet shells with the custard mixture on top of the jam.
Top and finish
Melt the butter in a small saucepan and mix in the ratafia crumbs.
Allow to cool.
Spread a layer of the ratafia mixture on top of the custard.
Use a salamander or broiler to brown the top for a few minutes.
Serve 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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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
-
Milk + apricottop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together826 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Milk + flourtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together78,219 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,458 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard as they set during cooking and give it body.
- Flour
- Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape when cooled.
- Butter
- Adds richness and fat, giving the ratafia topping a rich, smooth mouthfeel.
- Ratafia crumbs
- Add an almond-like aroma and a crisp, toasted layer on top of the custard.
- Caster sugar
- Sweetens the custard and helps it brown lightly under the broiler.
- Milk
- Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when heated.
The step that matters
Cook the custard over low heat. Eggs and starch thicken gradually; high heat can scramble the eggs or leave lumps, so stir steadily until the custard thickens like custard.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (milk, flour, sugar, egg, butter):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Apricotthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against milk, flour, sugar, egg, 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.
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