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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert made with milk, eggs, sugar, gelatin, cream, sherry, rose water, and vanilla, set in pans lined with ladyfingers.

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

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Make a rich custard by heating milk, eggs, and sugar in a double boiler.

  2. Dissolve gelatine in a little water and boil briefly, then stir into the hot custard.

  3. Fill the lower part of the double boiler with ice or snow and set it in a cold place to thicken.

  4. Once the custard thickens, flavor it with sherry, rose water, and vanilla extract.

  5. Add a spoonful of sugar to the sherry before mixing it into the custard.

  6. If the custard is too stiff, place it in boiling water and beat until softened.

Prepare the cream and pans

  1. Flavor cream with 1 tablespoon sugar and whip until stiff.

  2. Line two oval or oblong pans with lady fingers or sponge cake strips.

Assemble and serve

  1. Quickly fold in the whipped cream gently but thoroughly.

  2. Fill the lined pans with the mixture and set in a cold place to set.

  3. To serve, run a knife around the edges and invert the pan onto a dish.

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. Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Rose + vanillatop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together456 recipes

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

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
Thicken the custard base as they cook, giving it body and structure.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so the filling holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Whipped to add air and richness, giving the filling a light, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding creaminess and body.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and cream and helps stabilise the whipped cream.
Lady fingers or sponge cake
Forms the edible shell that holds the filling in shape.

The step that matters

Folding in the whipped cream. Gelatine begins to set as the custard cools, so if the custard is too stiff the cream will deflate or form lumps. Folding gently keeps the air in the cream, and softening the custard first helps it blend evenly.

“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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