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Dessert

Apple Charlotte

A baked dessert of stewed apples, bread crumbs, butter, eggs, wine, spices, lemon peel, and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Apple Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Combine stewed apples and bread crumbs in a bowl.

  2. Melt the butter and mix it in.

  3. Beat the eggs and stir them in just before baking.

  4. Add wine, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon peel, and brown sugar; stir well.

Bake

  1. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake at 400°F (200°C) for a long time.

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. Cinnamon + nutmegtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,917 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Stewed apples
Provide the bulk and moisture that form the soft, fruity body of the dessert.
Bread crumbs
Absorb the apple juices and butter, giving the charlotte its set, spoonable structure.
Butter
Adds richness and fat, contributing to a tender texture and flavour.
Eggs
Bind the mixture and help it set into a firm, sliceable custard-like texture when baked.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and molasses flavour, and helps the surface brown during baking.
Wine
Adds acidity and aromatic flavour that brightens the sweet apples.

The step that matters

Stir the eggs in just before baking. Raw egg begins to set on contact with the other ingredients and thickens the mixture. If it sits too long, the texture can turn uneven or dense, so the eggs should go in just before the dish enters the oven.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Orangefits about as well
  3. Vanillafits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, wine, cinnamon, nutmeg, lemon. 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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