a term which overlaps with flan, subsumes quiche and pizza, and is largely replaced in N. America by pie. A tart is a flat, baked item consisting of a base of pastry, or occasionally some other flour preparation, with a sweet or savoury topping not covered with a pastry lid. Such dishes have been made for a long time. They include pizza and its ancestors and relatives, with a base of bread dough; and some ancient forms of tart are described under that heading.
The term ‘tart’ occurs in the 14th-century recipe compilation the Forme of Cury, and so does its diminutive, ‘tartlet’. The relevant recipes are for savoury items containing meat. A mixture of savoury and sweet was common in medieval dishes and typical of the elaborate, decorative tarts and pies which were served at banquets. There was, however, a perceptible trend towards sweet tarts. These usually contained egg custard and fruits of various kinds, which could be used to provide the brilliant colours of which medieval cooks were fond: red, white, and pale green from fruits; strong green from spinach, which was used in sweet tarts; yellow from egg, with extra colour from saffron; and black from dark-coloured dried fruits. There are many 16th-century recipes for coloured ‘tartstuffs’.
Tourte de moy, so called in England in the 16th and 17th centuries, was a tart of bone marrow (moelle in French, changed to moy in English).
Nomenclature in other languages is as complex as in English. In French tarte, tartelette, quiche, and flan have much the same usages as their equivalents in English. But see also crouton; timbale; mirliton. Tourte is a vaguer term, applied rather to cakes, raised pies, or even a large, round loaf.
In German Torte usually means ‘cake’, but there are exceptions: for example Linzertorte is indisputably a jam tart. Pastetchen or Törtchen are names for tartlets. In Italian torta means cake or pie or occasionally tart; but the most usual term for a tart is (torta) crostata. A timballo is a peculiarly Italian type of pastry-cased tart with a filling including pasta. In Spanish tarta means tart, and tartaleta or pastelillo means tartlet.
The pastry now used in most tarts is pâte brisée, a type of rich shortcrust which is strong enough to support a slice of the tart when it is cut, but is not tough. It may or may not be slightly sweetened. For sweet tarts, the richer pâte sucrée, which contains egg and a fair amount of sugar, may be used. Simple jam tarts are outstandingly popular items in this category. For something a little more sophisticated see Bakewell tart.
Alan Davidson was a distinguished author and publisher, and one of the world's best-known writers on fish and fish cookery. In 1975 he retired early from the diplomatic service—after serving in, among other places, Washington, Egypt, Tunisia, and Laos, where he was British Ambassador—to pursue a fruitful second career as a food historian and food writer extraordinaire. Among his popular books are Seafood of South-East Asia, North Atlantic Seafood, and Mediterranean Seafood. In 2003, shortly before his death, he was awarded the Erasmus Prize for his contribution to European culture.
