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Dessert

A Charlotte Roussa

A custard dessert made with isinglass, milk, eggs, sugar, cream, and wine, set in a sponge cake-lined mold.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 ↓

A Charlotte Roussa

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in nearly ½ pint of milk and let it simmer.

  2. Beat the yolks with sugar, thick cream, and white wine.

  3. Strain the lukewarm milk into the mixture.

Assemble and set

  1. Add beaten egg whites and 1 pint of cream, then beat quickly.

  2. Pour into a mold lined with sponge cake slices dipped in egg white.

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. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Russian isinglass
Sets the cream mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard and add richness and body to the filling.
Egg whites
Whipped to lighten the mixture and add airy texture.
Thick cream
Adds fat for a rich, smooth texture.
Sponge cake
Lines the mold, giving the charlotte a soft, absorbent structure around the filling.

The step that matters

Beat quickly. Beating the egg whites and cream into the mixture must be done fast so the whites stay airy and the isinglass has not begun to set before the mixture is poured into the mold.

“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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