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Dessert

Charlotte

A chilled dessert made from cream, Marsala wine, egg whites, powdered sugar, gelatine, sweet milk, and vanilla extract.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of sweet milk.

Make the charlotte

  1. Beat the cream and Marsala wine together.

  2. Add the beaten egg whites to the cream mixture.

  3. Stir in the powdered sugar and the dissolved gelatine.

  4. Flavor with vanilla extract.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Rich cream
Forms the light, creamy body that is whipped and holds the dessert's structure.
Egg whites
Trapped air when beaten adds lightness and a fluffy texture.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and dissolves easily into the cream.
Marsala wine
Adds a distinctive fortified-wine aroma and flavor to the cream.

The step that matters

Stir in the dissolved gelatine. Gelatine must be fully dissolved and only slightly cooled before it is stirred into the cream. If it is too hot it can deflate the whipped cream and egg whites, and if it cools too much it can form lumps or strands instead of setting evenly.

“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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