Skip to main content
Dessert

Orange Charlotte

A chilled gelatin dessert made with orange juice, pulp, lemon juice, sugar, eggs, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Fannie Merritt Farmer · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 ↓

Orange Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine base

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water.

  2. Dissolve gelatin in boiling water.

  3. Strain the gelatin mixture.

  4. Add sugar, lemon juice, orange juice, and pulp to the strained gelatin.

  5. Chill the mixture in a pan of ice water until quite thick.

  6. Beat the thickened mixture with a wire spoon or whisk until frothy.

Build and set the charlotte

  1. Add the whites of eggs beaten stiff to the mixture.

  2. Fold in the whipped cream.

  3. Line a mold with sections of oranges.

  4. Turn in mixture.

  5. Smooth the surface evenly.

  6. Chill the molded dessert.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

252Calories
8 gProtein
11 gFat
32 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Egg1 large egg (50g)78
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot 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 Fannie Merritt Farmer. 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 + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a sliceable, wobbly structure when chilled.
Eggs
Whites beaten stiff add airy lightness and volume to the set dessert.
Cream
Whipped cream adds richness and a light, fluffy texture.
Sugar
Provides sweetness that balances the tart citrus juices.
Orange juice
Supplies the main orange flavour and liquid to the set base.

The step that matters

Chill until quite thick before beating. Gelatine must be thick and just starting to set before whipping; if it is still runny, the mixture won't hold the air from the beaten whites and cream, and if it sets too firm it won't blend smoothly.

Swap the orange

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

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

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

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes