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Dessert

Charlotte Russe Filling No. 3

A gelatin‑based fruit filling made with sugar, citrus juices, eggs, and optional fruit syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Mary Ronald · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe Filling No. 3

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soak an ounce of gelatin in a half cupful of cold water for half an hour.

Make the custard

  1. Make a syrup of one cupful of sugar, a half cupful of lemon juice, and two cupfuls of orange juice.

  2. When the syrup has become a light syrup, turn it slowly onto the beaten yolks of four eggs, beating all the time.

  3. Return the mixture to the double boiler and cook until it is a little thickened.

  4. Add the gelatin to the mixture.

  5. When the gelatin is dissolved, strain the mixture and beat until it is cold.

  6. Add the whites of four eggs and beat until it stiffens.

Fill the mold

  1. Turn the mixture into the mold.

  2. (Optional) Use a pint of whipped cream instead of the whipped egg whites if convenient.

  3. (Optional) In place of orange and lemon juice, use any fruit: stew the fruit until tender, add enough sugar to sweeten, and cook it to a light syrup.

  4. Press the cooked fruit through a sieve.

  5. Add the four eggs to the fruit syrup or pulp, then proceed as directed for the orange filling.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

127Calories
6 gProtein
5 gFat
13 gCarbs

Counts 2 of 5 ingredients. The other 3 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 2 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Waternot in our table0
Fruitnot in our table0
Syrupnot in our table0

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

By Mary Ronald. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  5. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the syrup into a custard, and beaten whites add airy lightness when stiffened.
Gelatine
Sets the cooled mixture so it holds its shape in the mold.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sourness of the citrus juices.
Orange juice
Provides the main fruit flavor and liquid base of the filling.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the filling.

The step that matters

Turning the syrup onto the beaten yolks. Pouring hot syrup too quickly or without constant beating can scramble the egg yolks into lumps. Slow pouring with steady beating tempers the eggs so the mixture thickens smoothly.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, syrup, egg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangethe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, syrup, egg. 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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