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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled gelatin dessert made with whipped cream, sweet milk, and flavored gelatin, served with fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
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Why it works: Tea and milk work together. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 738 recipes. Both carry 4-heptenal, which smells creamy, biscuit. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the molds

  1. Line individual glasses or molds with ladyfingers, or cut sponge cake into slices about half an inch thick, and as narrow and long as desired.

Make the filling

  1. Make a filling in a double boiler: combine one tea-cup sweet milk, two tablespoonfuls soaked gelatin, sugar to taste, vanilla or any preferred flavor.

  2. When thick enough, take off the heat and partially cool.

  3. Gradually add two cupfuls rich whipped cream.

  4. Put the mixture in the molds before it is thoroughly cold.

Set and serve

  1. Set aside until ready to serve.

  2. Before serving, top each dish with a mound of whipped cream and a ripe strawberry or cherry.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

200Calories
8 gProtein
13 gFat
12 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Milk1 cup (244ml) whole149
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

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. See the original page.

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. Tea + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together738 recipes

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

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Cream + teatop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together463 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

Gelatine
Sets the cooled milk and cream mixture into a firm, sliceable filling.
Rich whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the filling.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets.

The step that matters

Put the mixture in the molds before it is thoroughly cold. Gelatine begins to set as it cools. If the mixture is fully cold before molding, it may stiffen unevenly and be hard to pour, so it should be poured while still slightly warm and fluid.

“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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