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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, Madeira wine, egg whites, powdered sugar, gelatin, and sweet milk.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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

Prepare

  1. Sweeten and flavor the cream.

  2. Whip the cream until frothy.

  3. Soak the gelatine in a small amount of cold water and then melt it on the stove.

  4. Let the gelatine cool before adding it to the cream.

Make the filling

  1. In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.

  2. Combine the whipped cream and Madeira wine.

  3. Add the beaten egg whites and powdered sugar, then mix in the cooled gelatine.

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into a dish lined with cake or ladyfingers and set on ice until ready to serve.

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

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

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

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Thin cream
Whipped into foam to give the dessert its light, airy body.
Egg whites
Beaten to stiff peaks to lighten the filling and add volume.
Gelatine
Sets the whipped mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Madeira wine
Adds aromatic flavor to the cream.

The step that matters

Let the gelatine cool before adding it to the cream. Hot gelatine can deflate the whipped cream and egg whites, so cooling it slightly keeps the foam intact while still allowing the mixture to set.

“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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