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Dessert

Charlotte a LA Varsovienne

A fruit charlotte made with buttered bread, apricot marmalade, assorted fruits, syrup, and rum, baked and served chilled.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Plum and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 245 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Charlotte a LA Varsovienne

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a Charlotte mold and line it with the bread.

  2. Spread a thick layer of apricot marmalade on the inside of the bread.

Fill and bake

  1. An hour before serving, fill the mold with a mixture of assorted fruits, cooked and well-drained.

  2. Layer the fruits in the mold, alternating them as you go.

  3. Cover the top with more buttered bread and press down gently.

  4. Bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) for about 10 minutes.

Unmold and serve

  1. Remove from the oven and let cool slightly before inverting onto a plate.

  2. Brush the top with apricot marmalade and garnish with additional fruit.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Plum + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together245 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Apricot + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together342 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Apricot + plumtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together284 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Apple + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  5. Plum + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together163 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Buttered bread
Forms the outer shell and holds the fruit filling in its shape.
Apricot marmalade
Adds sweetness and a glossy, sticky layer that helps the bread bond to the fruit.
Assorted fruits
Supply the moist, sweet filling and most of the flavor of the dessert.
Syrup
Adds sweetness and moisture to the dish.
Rum
Adds aroma and a warm flavor note.

The step that matters

Let cool slightly before inverting onto a plate. Cooling briefly lets the bread and fruit firm up enough to hold their shape, while still warm enough to release cleanly from the mold without tearing or sliding apart.

Swap the pineapple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, apricot, plum, peach, apple, pear, syrup):

  1. Figfits about as well
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Quincefits about as well
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, apricot, plum, peach, apple, pear, syrup. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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