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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled gelatin-based dessert made with whipped cream, powdered sugar, sherry or vanilla, and ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for a few minutes.

  2. Add ¼ cup boiling water to the gelatin to dissolve it.

Make the cream

  1. In a bowl, whip the cold cream until soft peaks form.

  2. Gradually add the powdered sugar and flavoring to the cream.

  3. Slowly whip in the dissolved gelatin while the bowl is set in a pan of ice water.

Assemble and set

  1. Line a mold with ladyfingers.

  2. Pour the whipped cream mixture into the mold once it thickens.

  3. Chill until set.

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. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  2. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Gelatin + sherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Whipped into soft peaks, it forms the light, airy body of the dessert.
Granulated gelatin
Sets the whipped cream so the dessert holds its shape when chilled.
Ladyfingers
Form the sponge-like shell that lines the mold and gives structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into it without graininess.

The step that matters

Slowly whip in the dissolved gelatin. Gelatin added to cold cream in a lump sets into strings or specks. Adding it slowly over ice water, while whipping, cools it evenly so it blends in before the cream sets.

“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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