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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, egg yolks, sugar, milk, gelatin, egg whites, wine, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream and custard

  1. Whip the cream until stiff.

  2. Beat the sugar with the egg yolks until well combined.

  3. Simmer the milk and gelatin until the gelatin dissolves.

  4. Mix the milk mixture with the beaten yolks and sugar.

Assemble and set

  1. Fold in the beaten egg whites and whipped cream.

  2. Flavor with wine.

  3. Let cool.

  4. Pour into a mold lined with sponge cake.

  5. Once set, turn out onto a dish.

  6. Sift sugar over the top.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Milk + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (fenugreek, curry).

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Cream
Whipped into air bubbles that give the dessert a light, airy body.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and help thicken it as it sets, adding richness.
Egg whites
Whipped and folded in to lighten the mixture and add structure.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid custard so the charlotte holds its shape when turned out.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the gelatine sets.

The step that matters

Fold in the egg whites and cream. Folding gently keeps the whipped cream and egg white foam from deflating. Stirring vigorously knocks out the air, leaving a dense, heavy dessert instead of a light one.

“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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