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Dessert

Economical Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert with stale cake pieces and a chocolate cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 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 ↓

Economical Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Prepare a quart of mock custard and pour it into a large glass dish filled with stale cake pieces.

  2. Stir gently and beat the egg whites with sugar until stiff.

  3. Spread the beaten egg whites over the custard and refrigerate until cold.

Make the cream and serve

  1. To make the cream, boil 1½ cups of milk.

  2. In a bowl, mix ½ cup sugar, cornstarch, grated chocolate, 1 egg, ½ cup milk, and a pinch of salt.

  3. Pour the mixture into the boiling milk and simmer for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Once cooled, pour the cream over the cake just before serving.

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. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  4. Vanilla + nutmegtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,781 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Sugar + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

Stale cake
Forms the absorbent base that soaks up the custard and gives the dessert its body.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar to form a stiff foam that gives a light, airy topping.
Milk
Provides the liquid base for the cream, which thickens and sets when heated.
Egg
Thickens the cream as it cooks, giving it a smooth, spoonable texture.
Cornstarch
Thickens the cream by swelling in hot liquid, giving it body without setting firm.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and cream and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.

The step that matters

Simmering the cream mixture. Once the egg and cornstarch mixture meets the boiling milk it must simmer briefly while stirred. Cornstarch needs heat to thicken fully, and the egg can curdle or scramble if it overheats or is added too quickly.

“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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