A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a
pastry
Pastry is baked food made with a dough of flour, water and shortening (solid fats, including butter or lard) that may be savoury or sweetened. Sweetened pastries are often described as '' bakers' confectionery''. The word "pastries" suggests ...
base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually
shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with
custard
Custard is a variety of culinary preparations based on sweetened milk, cheese, or cream cooked with egg or egg yolk to thicken it, and sometimes also flour, corn starch, or gelatin. Depending on the recipe, custard may vary in consistency fr ...
. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart; an example would be
egg tarts. The categories of "tart", "
flan", "
quiche
Quiche ( ) is a French tart consisting of pastry crust filled with savoury custard and pieces of cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables. A well-known variant is quiche Lorraine, which includes lardons or bacon. Quiche may be served hot, warm ...
", and "
pie
A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts (pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), sweete ...
" overlap, with no sharp distinctions.
History
The
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
word ''tarte'' can be translated to mean either pie or tart, as both are mainly the same with the exception of a pie usually covering the filling in pastry, while flans and tarts leave it open.
Tarts are thought to have either come from a tradition of layering food, or to be a product of
Medieval
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
pie making. Enriched dough (i.e. short crust) is thought to have been first commonly used in 1550, approximately 200 years after pies. In this period, they were viewed as high-cuisine, popular with nobility, in contrast to the view of a commoners pie. While originally savoury, with meat fillings, culinary tastes led to sweet tarts to prevail, filling tarts instead with fruit and custard. Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often based on fruit and custard.
An early tart was the
Italian crostata
A crostata is an Italian baked tart or pie, also known as ''coppi'' in Naples and ''sfogliata'' in Lombardy. The earliest known use of ''crostata'' in its modern sense can be traced to the cookbooks ''Libro de Arte Coquinaria'' (Book of the Ar ...
, dating to at least the mid-15th century. It has been described as a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart".
Description
Tarts are typically free-standing with firm pastry base consisting of dough, itself made of flour, thick filling, and perpendicular sides while pies may have softer pastry, looser filling, and sloped sides, necessitating service from the pie plate.
Varieties
There are many types of tarts, with popular varieties including
Treacle tart,
meringue tart,
tarte tatin and
Bakewell tart. A ''jam tart'' uses
jam in place of fresh fruit.
''
Tarte Tatin'' is an upside-down tart, of apples, other fruit, or onions.
Savoury tarts include
quiche
Quiche ( ) is a French tart consisting of pastry crust filled with savoury custard and pieces of cheese, meat, seafood or vegetables. A well-known variant is quiche Lorraine, which includes lardons or bacon. Quiche may be served hot, warm ...
, a family of savoury tarts with a mostly custard filling; German
Zwiebelkuchen 'onion tart', and Swiss cheese tart made from
Gruyère.
Gallery
File:Strawberry tart by Kirti Poddar.jpg, Strawberry
The garden strawberry (or simply strawberry; ''Fragaria × ananassa'') is a widely grown hybrid species of the genus '' Fragaria'', collectively known as the strawberries, which are cultivated worldwide for their fruit. The fruit is widely ap ...
tart
File:Chocolate tarts by Tammy Green.jpg, Chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...
tart
File:Mexican blackberry tart by yoko.jpg, Mexican blackberry
The blackberry is an edible fruit produced by many species in the genus ''Rubus'' in the family Rosaceae, hybrids among these species within the subgenus ''Rubus'', and hybrids between the subgenera ''Rubus'' and ''Idaeobatus''. The taxonomy ...
tart
File:Tarte au riz.jpg, Rijstevlaai
File:Blueberry tart.jpg, Blueberry
Blueberries are a widely distributed and widespread group of perennial flowering plants with blue or purple berries. They are classified in the section ''Cyanococcus'' within the genus '' Vaccinium''. ''Vaccinium'' also includes cranberries ...
and raspberry
The raspberry is the edible fruit of a multitude of plant species in the genus ''Rubus'' of the rose family, most of which are in the subgenus '' Idaeobatus''. The name also applies to these plants themselves. Raspberries are perennial with ...
tart
File:Cranberry Curd Tart.png, Cranberry
Cranberries are a group of evergreen dwarf shrubs or trailing vines in the subgenus ''Oxycoccus'' of the genus '' Vaccinium''. In Britain, cranberry may refer to the native species '' Vaccinium oxycoccos'', while in North America, cranberry ...
Curd Tart
File:Egg Tarts with Puff Pastry.jpg, Egg tart
See also
*
Butter tart
*
Custard tart
*
Gypsy tart
*
List of baked goods
*
List of desserts
A dessert is typically the sweet course that, after the entrée and main course, concludes a meal in the culture of many countries, particularly Western culture. The course usually consists of sweet foods, but may include other items. The word ...
*
List of pies, tarts and flans
*
Manchester tart
*
Neenish tart
*
Norman Tart
*
Pop tart
*
Treacle tart
*
Hertzoggie
A Hertzoggie , also known in Afrikaans as a Hertzogkoekie or in English as a Hertzog Cookie, is a jam-filled tartlet or cookie with a coconut topping commonly served on a cup-like pastry base.
The cookie is a popular dessert in South Africa wher ...
*
Vlaai
Notes
References
*
*
External links
* {{Commons category-inline, Tarts