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Dessert

Charlotte Polonaise

A layered sponge cake with chocolate and almond creams.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Chocolate and almond are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,733 recipes. Both carry 2,3-pentanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Polonaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the creams

  1. Boil 1½ pints of cream over low heat.

  2. Gradually stir in 6 egg yolks, ensuring the mixture is smooth and lump‑free.

  3. Let the mixture boil for 10 minutes, then divide it into two saucepans.

  4. In one pan, mix in 6 ounces of grated chocolate, 2 ounces of loaf sugar, and ¼ pound of broken macaroons.

  5. In the other pan, add 12 bitter almonds, 4 ounces of blanched and pounded sweet almonds, 1 ounce of finely cut citron, and 4 ounces of pounded sugar.

  6. Stir well, bring to a boil, and set aside to cool.

Assemble and serve

  1. Cut a large sponge cake into ½‑inch thick slices.

  2. Spread one slice thickly with chocolate cream and the next with almond cream, alternating until all cream is used.

  3. Serve cold.

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. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Forms the rich, smooth body of both the chocolate and almond fillings.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a custard-like filling as they cook and set.
Grated chocolate
Gives the chocolate cream its flavour and deep colour.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavour and body to the almond cream.
Macaroons
Add texture and a sweet almond-like flavour to the chocolate cream.
Sponge cake
Provides the light, absorbent layers that hold the creams together.

The step that matters

Gradually stir in the egg yolks. Adding yolks to hot cream too quickly can scramble them and leave lumps. Stirring steadily while adding them keeps the custard smooth and lump-free.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, chocolate, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Hazelnutfits about as well
  3. Pecansfits about as well
  4. Pistachiofits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, chocolate, sugar. 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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