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Dessert

Charlotte Russe, with Pineapple

A chilled pineapple custard dessert set in a mold lined with sponge cake or ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Charlotte Russe, with Pineapple

Ingredients

Directions

Make the pineapple mixture

  1. Combine pineapple slices, sugar, gelatine, and water in a stewpan.

  2. Stew slowly until the pineapple is very tender.

  3. Pass the mixture through a sieve.

  4. Place the sieved mixture on ice and stir well.

Assemble and set

  1. Fold in the whipped cream when the mixture is about to set.

  2. Pour the mixture into a mold lined with sponge cake or ladyfingers.

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. Pineapple + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,841 recipes

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

  3. Pineapple + creamtop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,574 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and unmolded.
Heavy cream
Adds lightness and a creamy texture when whipped and folded in.
Sugar
Sweetens the pineapple and helps give the set mixture a softer bite.
Pineapple
Provides the main flavor and, once stewed, a smooth pulp for the filling.

The step that matters

Fold in the whipped cream when the mixture is about to set. If the gelatine mixture is still too warm, the cream will deflate and melt into it, while a mixture set too firm will not blend evenly. Folding at the point of just beginning to set keeps the cream airy and the filling uniform.

Swap the pineapple

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Pineapplethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream. 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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