Dish · french
Tarte Tatin
An upside-down tart of apples cooked in butter and sugar until caramelized, topped with pastry, baked, then flipped so the caramelized fruit ends up on top.
Where it comes from
The tart is credited to the Tatin sisters, who ran a hotel in the Loire Valley in the late 1800s. The often-told story that it was invented by accident, from a dropped or forgotten tart, is unconfirmed.
What cooks argue about
The real fight is how dark to cook the caramel before adding apples: too light tastes flat, too dark turns bitter, and the apples' own juice makes the timing hard to judge.
Nobody has published a tarte tatin recipe yet. The page stays out of search until one exists, which is the rule for every thin page here.