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 ↓
Charlotte Busse
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cream
Whip the cream to stiff peaks.
Drain the whipped cream on a fine wire sieve.
Make the custard
Combine the milk and beaten eggs in a bowl.
Sweeten and flavor the mixture with vanilla.
Heat the milk mixture over a kettle of hot water until it thickens into custard.
Soak the gelatine in a small amount of warm milk until dissolved.
Fold the strained gelatine and whipped cream into the cold custard.
Line and set
Line the bottom of a mold with buttered paper.
Line the sides of the mold with lady fingers or macaroons.
Secure the lady fingers or macaroons with egg white.
Fill the mold with the cream mixture.
Refrigerate until set.
Unmold by briefly dipping the mold in hot water.
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.
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Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together19,187 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
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Milk + buttertop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together81,283 recipes
Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).
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Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, 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
- Cream
- Whipped into stiff peaks, it gives the charlotte its light, airy body.
- Eggs
- Thicken the milk mixture into a custard that gives the filling its body.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cold custard and cream so the charlotte holds its shape when unmolded.
- Milk
- Forms the base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the eggs.
- Lady fingers or macaroons
- Form the sponge-like outer lining that holds the filling's shape.
The step that matters
Heat the milk mixture over hot water until it thickens into custard. Eggs thicken when heated gently; too much heat scrambles them into curdled lumps. Gentle, indirect heat from a water bath keeps the custard smooth.
“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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