Tarte Tatin

While the tart bakes, the glossy apples sit at the bottom of the pan. The fruit is covered with pastry and baked, and the tart is finally turned over. Turning it upside down in this way creates the top surface of the tarte Tatin. This dessert brings reduced fruit juice and sugar, along with softened fruit, to its surface, and it carries the name of two sisters who worked at an inn in central France.

The Tatin Sisters’ Inn and Three Legends of a Mistake

In the late 19th century, the inn run by the Tatin sisters, Caroline and Stéphanie, opposite the station at Lamotte-Beuvron in Sologne, became known for its hot apple tart. The legends of the tart’s creation tell different stories: the apples were burnt, so pastry was placed on top; the pastry was forgotten and laid over afterward; or the tart was baked upside down by mistake. Each is a legend that a specialty was born from a mistake.

The December 18, 1899 issue of Le Journal contains Gabriel Hanotaux’s praise for “the tart of Mademoiselle Tatin.” However, he does not describe the ingredients or the inverting step. By the time of the 1904 bulletin of the Cher Geographical Society, a guest records the hot apple tart of Stéphanie, nicknamed Fanny, as a specialty. The sisters’ work and their guests’ praise have come down to us, but it is not known whether either sister invented the tart.

An Old Method: A Copper Vessel Baked over Coals from Above and Below

After the sisters’ deaths, Paul Besnard set down a recette (the proportions of ingredients and the method) in the newspaper Le Loir-et-Cher in 1921. It calls for a copper vessel thickly lined with butter, about 1 centimeter of sugar, apples cut into quarters and arranged on top, and a covering of thin shortcrust pastry.

The vessel is set on charcoal and covered with a “field oven,” a metal cover on which more charcoal is also placed. After baking from above and below, a plate is placed over it, the vessel is turned over briskly, and the tart is served hot. The recette recommends the red-streaked yellow Reinette but also allows peaches, giving it a wider range than today’s impression that only apples are used. Besides the inverting step, this recette also described a way of cooking the fruit and sugar from above and below.

The Anecdote of Maxim’s Owner Posing as a Gardener

In an anecdote about Maxim’s in Paris, the sisters would not share their recette, so Louis Vaudable posed as a gardener to observe their kitchen. Although he could not garden and was dismissed after three days, the story says he took the secret back with him. Another version says he sent a pastry cook instead of going himself. However, food culture historian Pierre Leclercq points out that in 1906, when the sisters retired, Vaudable was only about 4 years old. The legendary infiltration does not line up with the record of the dessert appearing on the menu. In 1952 the name appeared on Maxim’s menu, and the town’s specialty reached a city restaurant.

The Theory That the Sisters Received It from a Cook

The idea of inverting the tart also has stories that predate the sisters. A manuscript by Marie Souchon, cited by Leclercq, relates that the sisters obtained the recette from an unnamed cook in the household of a nearby count. The “turned tourte” in a 1790 qualifying examination for bakers is older still, but its ingredients are unknown, and it is not necessarily the same as today’s Tatin.

The sisters’ specialty spread through the inn’s reputation, its passing on by cooks, and its adoption onto the menus of city restaurants, and the anecdote that it was born from a mistake also came to be retold later.

Color the Sugar First, or Cook It Together with the Fruit?

Current methods also differ in the order of cooking. In the method shared by the Sologne tourism office, butter, sugar, and apples are arranged and first baked in the oven, then the moisture is adjusted over direct heat, and an egg-enriched shortcrust pastry is laid on top before the tart is baked again. In King Arthur’s method, by contrast, the sugar is cooked to a deep amber before butter and other ingredients are added, and then the fruit is cooked in it.

A gentle boil is maintained, and the cooking is balanced by watching both how the liquid reduces and how soft the fruit becomes. If the heat is too low, the liquid does not reduce; if it is too high, the fruit loses its moisture before it is cooked through. Not only the color of the caramel but also how the apples soften affects the flavor and shape of the inverted surface.

Apples Arranged in the Bottom of the Pan Become the Finished Surface

Apples change in volume as they lose moisture. If they are placed rounded side down and packed tightly in concentric circles from the outer edge, slightly overlapping, that arrangement appears on the inverted surface. Unlike tarts finished with thin slices of raw fruit as decoration, the shape of the apples arranged before cooking becomes the surface pattern as it is.

King Arthur recommends Pink Lady, which holds its shape, whereas the Sologne recette lists Royal Gala and Jonagold. Acidity, juiciness, and how much the fruit breaks down differ by variety, and different varieties will not necessarily finish cooking in the same time.

The pastry, too, may be either a shortcrust, made by rubbing butter into flour, or a laminated puff pastry built up in layers. This determines whether the base breaks into crumbly pieces or comes apart in many layers. King Arthur’s method transfers the cooked apples to a separate round pan, cuts steam vents in the pastry, and waits 45 minutes after baking before turning the tart out. This differs, in the transfer and the waiting time, from methods that cook in the same pan from stovetop to oven. A warm slice is sometimes served with crème fraîche or vanilla ice cream.

The Inverting Technique Extends to Pears and Vegetables

Tatin-style inversion has spread beyond apples. In one method, pears are placed rounded side down, combined with caramel, and covered with a cocoa shortcrust, so that white curves of pear appear on the inverted surface. Pears, whose acidity differs from that of apples, are paired with a pastry containing cacao.

The technique can also be used for vegetables. In one Tatin, endives are halved lengthwise, colored with sugar and butter, cooked with vinegar, arranged in a pan, and covered with pastry. When it is turned out and served with cured ham, the inverting technique moves from a sweet dessert to a dish of vegetables and meat. Even as the ingredients change, the technique of turning over the ingredients arranged in the bottom of the pan so that they become the surface remains the same.

Festivals and Promotion That Continue in Lamotte-Beuvron

In Lamotte-Beuvron, flowers are laid at the sisters’ graves in conjunction with the Tatin festival, a preservation society continues its promotional activities, and since 2023 a competition for artisans has also been held. The sisters, who spread the tart’s reputation through their guests, and the work of the people who keep baking it locally have become part of the history of tarte Tatin, along with the anecdote of a mistake.

Glossary