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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled dessert of custard, gelatin, whipped cream, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, mix the egg yolks, sugar, and milk.

  2. Heat gently until it thickens like custard, but do not let it boil.

  3. Soak the gelatin in a little water.

  4. Add the soaked gelatin to the custard mixture.

Whip the cream

  1. In a separate bowl, place the heavy cream and flavor it.

  2. Chill the cream.

  3. Whip the cream until soft peaks form.

  4. Pour the whipped cream into another dish.

Assemble and chill

  1. Return the custard to the ice bath.

  2. Stir until it thickens to a jelly-like consistency.

  3. Fold in the whipped cream.

  4. Line a dish with sponge cake.

  5. Pour the Charlotte mixture into the lined dish.

  6. Place the dish in the refrigerator to chill.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 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. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness and structure as they gently set.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps balance the richness of the custard and cream.
Milk
Provides the liquid base that the egg yolks thicken into custard.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so the mixture holds its shape when chilled.
Heavy cream
Whipped into air bubbles, it lightens the texture and adds richness.
Sponge cake
Forms the lining that holds the filling and gives it a soft, absorbent base.

The step that matters

Heat the custard gently and do not let it boil. Egg yolks thicken at moderate heat. Boiling can scramble them into lumps and leave the custard grainy and unevenly set.

“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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