Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Charlotte De Pommes
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. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.
Prepare the marmalade
Beat the egg white in water, adding sugar to taste, and boil until the sugar is clear, skimming as needed.
Remove from heat and strain through a white cloth or sieve.
Prepare apple marmalade by cooking apples until reduced and thick.
Assemble and bake
Grease the bottom and sides of a casserole with butter and layer with thin slices of bread.
Pour the cold marmalade into the casserole and cover with more buttered bread.
Bake for 15 minutes at 400°F (200°C) or place in hot ashes with fire on top.
Serve
Invert onto a plate; it should have a beautiful golden color.
Wipe with a clean cloth and serve.
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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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Egg + breadtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together22,662 recipes
Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Egg + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Cook down to a thick marmalade that forms the soft, moist filling.
- Bread
- Thin buttered slices line the casserole and hold the filling in shape as it bakes.
- Egg white
- Clarified with sugar and water, it is strained to give a clear syrup-like element.
- Butter
- Greases the casserole and helps the bread brown to a golden color.
The step that matters
Baking the assembled charlotte. The bread must be buttered and the marmalade cold before baking, so the bread browns and crisps while the filling stays set and moist rather than soaking the bread.
Swap the apple
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Datesfits about as well
- Applethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, bread. 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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