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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert made with cream, milk, sugar, vanilla, eggs, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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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

  1. Soak the isinglass in cold water for 2 hours, weighted down to prevent floating.

  2. Line the molds with thin strips of sponge cake.

  3. Use egg white to stick the edges together.

  4. Heat the milk over boiling water.

  5. Beat the egg yolks with sugar.

  6. Pour the hot milk over the beaten yolks.

  7. Remove the isinglass from the water.

  8. Add the isinglass to the hot custard, stirring until slightly thickened.

  9. Let the custard cool.

Whip the cream

  1. Whip the cream in a deep bowl.

  2. Strain the whipped cream through a sieve.

  3. Return the drained cream to the bowl.

  4. Whip the cream as much as possible.

  5. Add any unwhipped cream to the custard.

Assemble and chill

  1. Beat the custard thoroughly with the whipped cream.

  2. Pour the mixture into the molds.

  3. Place the molds on ice.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Cream
Whipped into foam, it gives the charlotte its light, airy texture.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like setting agent that firms the custard so it holds its shape when chilled.
Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard through gentle heating and add richness to the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the yolks thicken.
Sponge cake
Forms the outer shell that lines the molds and holds the filling.

The step that matters

Add the isinglass to the hot custard, stirring until slightly thickened.. Isinglass must be fully dissolved and the custard only lightly thickened, since overheating can curdle the eggs and too little setting agent leaves the molded dessert too soft to hold its shape.

“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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