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Dessert

Charlotte Polonaise

A layered sponge cake with chocolate and almond mixtures, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Polonaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 2 large tablespoons of cornstarch. Add 1½ pints of cream.

  2. Boil slowly, stirring constantly until thick and smooth.

  3. Divide the mixture in half.

Make the two fillings

  1. Add 4 to 6 ounces of chocolate to one half and sweeten to taste. Break ¼ pound of macaroons into the chocolate mixture. Boil briefly. Set aside to cool.

  2. Blend 1 dozen bitter almonds and ¼ pound of sweet almonds with ¼ pound of pounded citron into a smooth paste. Stir in ¼ pound of sugar. Bring to a boil. Set aside to cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Bake a sponge cake in jelly cake molds.

  2. Spread one cake with the chocolate mixture. Spread another cake with the almond mixture. Layer them.

  3. Cover the entire cake with meringue. Bake in the oven until slightly hardened and browned.

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. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 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

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a smooth custard and add richness.
Cornstarch
Thickens the custard so it holds its shape when cooled.
Cream
Forms the rich, smooth body of the custard.
Chocolate
Adds flavor and deep color to one half of the custard.
Sweet almonds
Give the almond filling body, nutty flavor and a smooth paste texture.
Sponge cake
Provides the light layers that hold the fillings.

The step that matters

Boiling the custard slowly while stirring constantly. Egg yolks and cornstarch can scorch or lump if left unstirred over heat. Constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and lets the starch thicken evenly before it is divided.

Swap the almond

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

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

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