Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Fruit Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Dissolve the lemon jelly in water and add more sugar and the strained lemon juice.
Prepare a mold and place a small jam jar in the center to create a hollow. Add a weight inside the jar to keep it in place.
Pour a little jelly around the jar and place the mold on ice to solidify.
Layer the fruit
Once the jelly can hold its shape, arrange a row of mixed fruits in the mold.
Pour in more jelly and repeat layering with fruit until the mold is full.
Unmold and fill
When solid, place the mold in hot water for a minute to release it. Add a little water inside the jam jar to help remove it easily.
Turn the jelly out onto a glass dish and fill the center with whipped cream mixed with egg white and sugar.
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.
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Lemon + peachtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together947 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Currant + peachtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + peachtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,308 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon and sugar 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
- Lemon jelly
- Sets into the firm, clear body that holds the fruit in layers.
- Assorted fruits
- Provide flavour, colour and juicy texture within the set jelly.
- Whipped cream
- Forms the soft, rich filling in the centre of the molded jelly.
- Egg white
- Helps the whipped cream hold its airy structure.
The step that matters
Pouring the jelly layers on ice. Each layer must be partly set before fruit is added, otherwise the fruit sinks or floats and the layers mix. Chilling gently on ice firms the jelly evenly without cloudiness from overheating.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, peach, cream, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raspberryfits better
- Blackberryfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, peach, cream, 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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