Name: Charlotte Russb
Ingredients: stale cake slices; Sea-foam cream; wine; whipped cream; sugar; flavoring

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 Russb

Ingredients

Directions

Place stale cake slices in a covered dish.
Set the dish in a steamer until the cake becomes soft.
Let the cake cool, then arrange it on a serving dish.
Pour Sea-foam cream flavored with wine over the cake.
Alternatively, use sweetened and flavored whipped cream immediately.
If using a substitute for whipped cream, chill it on ice to thicken.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together3,887 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).
Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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