{{short description|Open-topped pastry dish}} {{other uses|Tart (disambiguation)}} {{Distinguish|Torte|Torta|Tort}} {{Infobox prepared food | name = Tart | image = frameless | caption = Raspberry tart | alternate_name = | country = | | creator = | course = | type = | served = | main_ingredient = Pastry crust (usually shortcrust pastry) | variations = Sweet tarts, savoury tarts | calories = | other = }} A '''tart''' is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry 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. '''Tartlet''' refers to a miniature tart; an example would be egg tarts. The categories of "tart", "flan", and "pie" overlap, with no sharp distinctions.
== History == [[File:Akashi City Museum of Culture Hyogo pref Japan13s.jpg|thumb|Piece of apple tart|alt=]] The French word ''tarte'' can be translated to mean either pie or tart, as both are mainly the same except a pie usually covers the filling in pastry, while flans and tarts leave it open.<ref>Davidson: ''s.v.'' 'tart'</ref> While many tarts are also tart, in the sense of sour in taste, this appears to be a coincidence; the etymologies of the two senses of the word are quite separate.
Tarts are thought to have either come from a tradition of layering food or to be a product of medieval pie making. Enriched dough (i.e. shortcrust) 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 commoner's pie. While originally savory, with meat fillings, culinary tastes led to sweet tarts prevailing, filling tarts instead with fruit and custard.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://joepastry.com/2009/tarts_a_history/|title=Tarts, a History|date=20 July 2009|website=Joe Pastry|access-date=19 September 2016}}</ref> Early medieval tarts generally had meat fillings, but later ones were often based on fruit and custard.<ref>Davidson: ''s.v.'' 'tart'</ref>
An early tart was the Italian ''crostata'', dating to at least the mid-15th century. It has been described as a "rustic free-form version of an open fruit tart".<ref>Corley: 2011. Page 129.</ref>
== Description == [[File:00 Lemon Meringue Tarts.jpg|thumb|Lemon meringue tarts|alt=]] 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/cookies/pastry/pie-tart-difference.asp |title=Pie or Tart: What's the Difference|access-date=2015-03-15}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.thekitchn.com/pie-vs-tart-whats-the-differen-68710|title=Pie vs. Tart: What's the Difference?|access-date=2015-03-15}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=http://ifood.tv/tart/about|title=About Tarts|website=iFood.tv|access-date=19 September 2016}}</ref>
== 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, a family of savoury tarts with a mostly custard filling; German Zwiebelkuchen and Alsace Tarte à l'oignon or Zewelwaï<ref>David, pp. 184–185</ref> (onion tarts), and Swiss cheese tart made from Gruyère.
==Gallery== <gallery mode="packed"> File:Strawberry tart by Kirti Poddar.jpg|Strawberry tart File:Chocolate tarts by Tammy Green.jpg|Chocolate tart File:Mexican blackberry tart by yoko.jpg|Mexican blackberry tart File:Tarte au riz.jpg|Rijstevlaai File:Blueberry tart.jpg|Blueberry and raspberry tart File:Cranberry Curd Tart.png|Cranberry curd tart File:Egg Tarts with Puff Pastry.jpg|Egg tart File:tarteFR.hk.jpg|Tarte fruits rouges File:Cheese tarts on display at Sendai Station, Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, Japan.jpg|Hokkaido cheese tarts from Japan </gallery>
==See also== {{portal|Food}} {{div col|colwidth=20em}} * Butter tart * Custard tart * Gypsy tart * Hertzoggie * List of baked goods * List of desserts * List of pies, tarts and flans * Manchester tart * Neenish tart * Norman tart * Pop tart * Treacle tart * Vlaai {{div col end}}
==Notes== {{reflist}}
==References== *{{cite book|title=Gourmet Gifts: 100 Delicious Recipes for Every Occasion to Make Yourself & Wrap with Style|last=Corley|first=Dinah|publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt|year=2011|isbn=9781558324350|ref=Corley|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/gourmetgifts100d0000corl}} * {{cite book | last = David | first = Elizabeth | authorlink = Elizabeth David | title = French Provincial Cooking | date = 2008 | orig-date = 1960 | location = London | publisher = Folio Society | oclc = 809349711}} * {{cite book | last=Davidson | first=Alan | title= The Oxford Companion to Food| year=1999 | location=Oxford | publisher=Oxford University Press | isbn=978-0-19-211579-9 |ref=none}}
==External links== * {{Commons category-inline|Tarts}}
Category:Tarts Category:Baked goods Category:Pastries