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Dessert

Apple Tarts

Small rolled-dough tarts enclosing candied apple, baked and finished with jelly or preserves and powdered sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Apple Tarts

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Sift flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt together.

  2. Cut shortening into the dry ingredients until evenly blended.

  3. Beat egg lightly and combine it with cream and lemon juice.

  4. Add the egg mixture to the dry ingredients, then mix and roll the dough out on a floured surface as thin as possible.

Shape the tarts

  1. Cut dough into round shapes.

  2. Enclose a small piece of candied apple in the dough, pressing edges down with a fork.

  3. Flavor apples with nutmeg or cinnamon if desired.

  4. Alternatively, roll dough into strips, place a quarter of candied apple on each strip, and roll it up.

  5. For a crown tart, cut two sizes of dough, place apple on the larger piece, cover with the smaller piece, and press edges down.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake tarts in a 400°F (200°C) oven until golden.

  2. After baking, cool and place a circle of jelly or preserves around the crown, dust with powdered sugar, and serve.

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. Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Flour + nutmegtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together18,623 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  5. Cream + nutmegtop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,920 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

What each ingredient does

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough once mixed with liquid and rolled.
Shortening
Coats flour particles to make the dough tender and flaky.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds richness and structure.
Baking powder
Releases gas during baking so the tarts rise and stay light.
Candied apples
Provide the sweet, fruity filling inside the tarts.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough as thin as possible. Thin dough bakes evenly and becomes crisp and golden, while thick dough stays doughy and pale in the centre. Overworking the dough after adding liquid develops gluten, which makes it tough.

Swap the nutmeg

The recipe marks nutmeg as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, egg, lemon, cream, apple):

  1. Nutmegthe original
  2. Cinnamonfits about as well
  3. Tarragonfits less well
  4. Turmericfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, egg, lemon, cream, apple. 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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