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Dessert

Apple Charlotte

A baked dessert of apples, bread, butter, sugar, and nutmeg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Wheat and nutmeg match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 359 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Apple Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the basin

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Rub the bottom and sides of a basin with butter.

  3. Line the basin with the sliced bread or rolls.

Layer the filling

  1. Peel and cut the apples into small pieces, filling the basin nearly full.

  2. Sprinkle bits of butter and sugar between the apple layers.

  3. Grate nutmeg over the apples.

  4. Soak additional slices of bread or rolls in water and cover the apples with them.

  5. Place a plate and a weight on top to press the bread down.

Bake and serve

  1. Bake for 2 hours, then turn it out onto a serving plate.

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. Wheat + nutmegtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together359 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Apple + nutmegtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,790 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Wheat + buttertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,002 recipes

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

  4. Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,706 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Wheat + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together205 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

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

What each ingredient does

Bread or rolls
Forms the outer shell that holds the apples in shape as the charlotte bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and helps the bread brown and crisp at the edges.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the apples caramelize slightly as they cook.
Tart apples
Provide the main filling, softening as they bake while keeping some acidity and body.
Nutmeg
Adds a warm aromatic flavour that complements the baked apples.

The step that matters

Pressing the bread down with a weight. Pressing the bread firmly against the apples keeps the layers compact so the charlotte holds its shape when turned out instead of collapsing into loose apple.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wheat, butter, sugar, nutmeg):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against wheat, butter, sugar, nutmeg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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