[Sca-cooks] tart tatin?

Gretchen Beck grm at andrew.cmu.edu
Tue Nov 27 20:34:07 PST 2007



--On Tuesday, November 27, 2007 10:28 PM -0600 Stefan li Rous 
<StefanliRous at austin.rr.com> wrote:

>
> What is a tart tatin?

According to that paragon of accuracy, the Wikipedia:

Tarte Tatin is an upside-down apple tart in which the apples are 
caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked.

Tradition says that the Tarte Tatin was first created by accident at the 
Hotel Tatin in Lamotte-Beuvron, France in 1889. The hotel was run by two 
sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin. There are conflicting stories 
concerning the tart's origin, but the predominant one is that Stéphanie 
Tatin, who did most of the cooking, was overworked one day. She started to 
make a traditional apple pie but left the apples cooking in butter and 
sugar for too long. Smelling the burning, she tried to rescue the dish by 
putting the pastry base on top of the pan of apples, quickly finishing the 
cooking by putting the whole pan in the oven. After turning out the upside 
down tart, she was surprised to find how much the hotel guests appreciated 
the dessert. An alternative version of the tart's origin is offered on the 
Brotherhood of the Tarte Tatin website [citation needed], according to 
which Stéphanie baked a caramelised apple tart upside-down by mistake. 
Regardless she served her guests the unusual dish hot from the oven and a 
classic was born.


(I believe the description is correct, and the legend is found several 
places on the net.)

toodles, margaret





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