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Dessert

Economical Charlotte Russe

A chilled dessert made with stale cake, mock custard, and a chocolate cream topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 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 base

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

  2. Gently stir the mixture.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff and sweeten with sugar.

  4. Spread the beaten egg whites over the top of the cake mixture.

  5. Refrigerate until cold.

Make the cream and serve

  1. Boil 1½ cups of milk for the cream.

  2. In a bowl, mix ½ cup sugar, cornstarch, grated chocolate, 1 egg, ¼ cup milk, and a pinch of salt.

  3. Pour the mixture into the boiling milk.

  4. Simmer for 1-2 minutes.

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Milk + chocolatetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, 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

Eggs
Beaten whites form a stiff, airy topping, and the whole egg thickens the cream.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, pourable cream when heated.
Stale cake
Soaks up the custard and forms the soft, absorbent base of the dessert.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream, giving it body and a mild dairy flavor.
Mock custard
Moistens the cake pieces and adds a creamy, sweet layer to the base.

The step that matters

Pouring the cream into the boiling milk. Adding the egg and cornstarch mixture to boiling milk can curdle the egg or leave lumps; stirring well while it simmers keeps the cream smooth as the starch thickens it.

“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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