Skip to main content
Dessert

Economical Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert with stale cake, egg whites, and chocolate cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Economical Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the base

  1. Prepare a quart of mock custard and pour it into a large glass fruit dish filled with stale cake pieces. Stir the mixture gently.

  2. Beat the egg whites until stiff and sweeten with white sugar; spread over the top.

  3. Refrigerate until cold.

Make the cream

  1. To make the cream, boil 1½ cups of milk.

  2. In a bowl, mix ½ cup sugar, 1 heaping teaspoon cornstarch, 2 tablespoons grated chocolate, 1 egg, ½ cup milk, and a pinch of salt. Pour this mixture into the boiling milk and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  3. Once the cream is cold, pour it over the cake just before serving.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

Stale cake
Soaks up the custard and gives the dessert its body and structure.
Mock custard
Provides moisture and a creamy, soft texture through the cake pieces.
Egg whites
Whipped and sweetened to form a stiff, airy topping over the dish.
Egg
Thickens the chocolate cream as it cooks in the hot milk.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream so it sets smooth rather than runny.
Grated chocolate
Adds chocolate flavour and color to the cream.

The step that matters

Simmering the chocolate cream. The egg and cornstarch mixture must be stirred into the boiling milk and simmered briefly to thicken. Without enough heat and stirring, the egg and starch can stay lumpy or thin, and the cream will not set properly.

“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.

More charlotte russe recipes

Pineapple 6Chocolate 5 See all 408 →

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes