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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert flavored with gelatin, whipped cream, and maraschino, served in a mold surrounded by ice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a rich custard with milk and eggs, sweetening to taste.

  2. Dissolve gelatin in warm custard, strain, and whip until cold.

Freeze and set

  1. Pour custard into a freezer and churn for 5 minutes.

  2. When it starts to thicken, stir in whipped cream vigorously.

  3. Add maraschino and mix well, then close the freezer lid.

  4. Fill the mold with ice, pressing down carefully, and set in a bed of ice.

  5. Ensure no water from thawed ice enters the mold.

Serve

  1. Before serving, turn out the pudding and cover it with the case.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Milk + coffeetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the custard and give it a rich, smooth body when cooked with milk.
Gelatin
Sets the chilled mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mold.
Whipped cream
Adds air and richness, giving the frozen dessert a lighter, creamier texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and softens the texture of the frozen mixture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, providing body and creaminess.

The step that matters

Stir in whipped cream while the custard is only partly frozen. If the custard is too firm or too liquid, the cream will not blend evenly, and air will be lost. Vigorous stirring at the point of thickening keeps the mixture light and smooth.

“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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