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Dessert

Raspberry Charlotte

A chilled dessert of whipped cream, gelatin, and raspberries served in a molded dish.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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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 ↓

Raspberry Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Substitute 1 pint mashed strained raspberries and ½ cup melted currant jelly or fresh currant juice for apples in the Apple Charlotte recipe.

  2. Soak ½ box gelatine in ½ cup cold water for 30 minutes, then dissolve in ½ cup hot cream.

  3. Set the bowl in a pan of ice water and stir until the gelatine begins to thicken.

Make the cream and set

  1. Whip 1 pint sweet cream until stiff, then carefully add ½ cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon rose water, and ⅓ cup Sherry wine.

  2. Combine the whipped cream with the gelatine mixture and stir well.

  3. Line a glass dish or mold with lady fingers, fill with the cream mixture, and 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Currant + rosetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together494 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Currant + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together393 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Currant + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,323 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Rose + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together438 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Sweet cream
Whipped to stiff foam, it gives the charlotte its light, airy texture and richness.
Raspberries
Provide the main fruit flavour and tartness, along with moisture and colour.
Lady fingers
Form the sponge lining that holds the cream filling in shape.
Currant jelly
Adds concentrated fruit flavour and extra setting body to the raspberry base.

The step that matters

Cooling the gelatine before combining. Stir the gelatine over ice water only until it begins to thicken. If it is still liquid and hot when folded into the whipped cream, it will deflate the foam and the filling may not set evenly.

Swap the currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, sugar, rose, sherry, wine):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, rose, sherry, wine. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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