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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert with gelatin, whipped cream, and sponge cake or ladyfingers.

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 Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream and custard

  1. Whip the cream to stiff peaks and drain it on a fine sieve.

  2. In a bowl, combine the milk and beaten eggs, then sweeten and flavor with vanilla.

  3. Cook the mixture over hot water until it thickens into a custard.

Add the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in a small amount of water, then warm it over hot water until dissolved.

  2. Once the custard is cold, gently fold in the gelatin and whipped cream.

Line and set the mold

  1. Line the bottom of a mold with buttered paper and the sides with sponge cake or ladyfingers secured with egg white.

  2. Fill the mold with the cream mixture and refrigerate or place on ice.

  3. To unmold, briefly dip the mold in hot water.

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. Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Cream + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  4. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,050 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it gives the dessert its light, airy body.
Eggs
Thicken the milk mixture into a custard and add richness and structure.
Gelatin
Sets the cream filling so it holds its shape when unmolded.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Sponge cake or ladyfingers
Form the outer shell that holds the filling and gives a soft, cake-like texture.

The step that matters

Warming the gelatin until dissolved. Gelatin must be fully dissolved before folding it in; lumps or undissolved granules will leave gritty spots and uneven setting. Folding it into a custard that is still warm can also cause problems, so the custard should be cold first, as the method states.

“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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