Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓
Charlotte Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gelatine and custard
Dissolve the gelatine in less than ½ cup of water.
Make a custard by heating 1 pt of milk and mixing in the yolks of 3 eggs.
Assemble and set
Whip 1 qt of cream to stiff peaks.
Once the gelatine is cool but not congealed, beat it into the cooled custard.
Add the whipped cream and season with vanilla.
Pour the mixture into moulds lined with sponge cake or lady fingers.
Set aside until it is stiff enough to turn out of the moulds.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Cream and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,301 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the custard and cream so the dessert holds its shape when turned out.
- Egg yolks
- Thicken the milk into a custard and add richness to the filling.
- Cream
- Whipped to stiff peaks, it lightens the filling and adds moisture and richness.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the custard that the yolks thicken.
The step that matters
Beat the gelatine in when it is cool but not congealed. If the gelatine is too hot it can thin the cream and custard and delay setting, while if it has already begun to set it will form lumps and not blend evenly into the custard.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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