Why it works: Cream and sugar 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
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in a little cold water until soft.
Dissolve the gelatine in enough boiling water, then boil for 15-20 minutes.
Remove from heat and let cool.
Make the filling
Whip the cream until light, then sweeten and flavor to taste.
Once the gelatine is cool, combine it with the whipped cream.
Assemble and chill
Before the mixture thickens, pour it over prepared slices of sponge cake in a dish.
Set the dish on ice to chill.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fresh cream
- Whipped into air bubbles, it gives the filling its light, airy body.
- Gelatine
- Sets the cream so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Sponge cake
- Forms the base layer that the filling is poured over and holds.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the cream and balances its richness.
The step that matters
Pour before the mixture thickens. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so if the cream mixture stiffens too much it will not spread evenly over the sponge cake and may leave gaps.
“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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