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 Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the custard base
Soak the gelatin in the milk for 1 hour.
Warm the milk to dissolve the gelatin.
In a bowl, beat the eggs and sugar together.
Add the dissolved gelatin mixture to the eggs and sugar.
Stir until the mixture begins to thicken.
Finish the filling
Add the flavoring and the heavy cream, mixing gently.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Cream + milktop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together88,785 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Milk and sugar 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
- Heavy cream
- Whipped or folded in, it adds lightness and a rich, creamy body to the filling.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid mixture so the filling holds its shape when chilled.
- Eggs
- Thicken the custard and add richness and structure to the filling.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps stabilise the beaten eggs.
- Milk
- Provides the liquid that hydrates the gelatine and carries the flavour.
The step that matters
Stir until the mixture begins to thicken. Stop as soon as it starts to thicken. Gelatine sets as it cools, so if the mixture is allowed to set before the cream is added, the filling becomes lumpy and loses its airy texture.
“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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