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Dessert

Plain Charlotte Russe. No. 1

A custard dessert made with milk, egg yolks, sugar, salt, vanilla, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Plain Charlotte Russe. No. 1

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the milk

  1. Wet a saucepan with cold water to prevent burning.

  2. Pour out the water.

  3. Add 1 quart of milk.

  4. Boil the milk.

  5. Let the milk cool slightly.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 3 ounces of sugar and ¼ teaspoon of salt, mixing thoroughly.

  2. Add the lukewarm milk to the egg mixture and stir.

  3. Pour the mixture into a double boiler.

  4. Stir over heat until it thickens to a cream consistency.

  5. Do not allow the custard to boil.

  6. Strain the custard.

  7. Let the custard cool slightly.

  8. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla.

Assemble and set

  1. Arrange the sponge cake slices around the sides and bottom of a glass dish.

  2. Pour the custard over the cake.

  3. Let it set in a cool place.

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. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set during gentle heating and add richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets into a soft, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps keep it smooth and tender.
White sponge cake
Provides a soft, absorbent base that holds the set custard in the dish.

The step that matters

Stir the custard over gentle heat and do not let it boil. Egg proteins thicken the custard as it warms, but past about boiling temperature they curdle and turn grainy, and the custard will not set smoothly.

“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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