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Dessert

American Custard Tarts

A tart with a custard filling made from eggs, milk, powdered sugar, lemon rind, and corn flour, baked in puff pastry cups.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 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 ↓

American Custard Tarts

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.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs with the powdered sugar until well combined.

  2. Add the milk, grated lemon rind, and corn flour; mix until smooth.

Fill and bake

  1. Roll out the puff pastry thinly and line patty pans, notching the edges to form cups.

  2. Fill each cup with a dessert spoonful of custard mixture.

  3. Dust the tops with a little nutmeg and sugar.

  4. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

Finish

  1. Once baked, pipe a little raspberry jam around the custard.

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. Lemon + raspberrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

  5. Corn + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together563 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard as they cook, giving it structure and a firm, sliceable body.
Corn flour
Thickens the milk mixture so the custard holds its shape after baking.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, giving it a soft, creamy texture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the custard and dissolves smoothly into the eggs for a fine texture.
Puff pastry
Forms the crisp, flaky case that holds the custard while it bakes.

The step that matters

Bake until just set. Eggs set as they heat, so overbaking can make the custard rubbery and cause it to weep or crack. Pull the tarts when the centres barely wobble, since they keep setting as they cool.

Swap the raspberry

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, milk, lemon, corn, flour, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, milk, lemon, corn, flour, nutmeg. 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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