Skip to main content
Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert made with cream, milk, sugar, gelatin, eggs, vanilla, and lined with sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

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 the base

  1. Combine the cream and vanilla in a bowl.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar in another bowl.

  3. Dissolve the gelatin in warm milk.

  4. Strain the gelatin mixture into the yolk and sugar mixture.

  5. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  6. Whip the cold cream until light and fluffy.

Assemble and set

  1. Fold the whipped cream into the egg and gelatin mixture.

  2. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.

  3. Line moulds with sponge cake.

  4. Pour the mixture into the lined moulds.

  5. Chill in the refrigerator 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. 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

Cream
Whipped into airy volume that gives the dessert its light, creamy body.
Eggs
Yolks enrich and thicken the custard base while whites add lightness through whipped foam.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled in the moulds.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps stabilise the beaten egg yolks.
Milk
Liquid that dissolves the gelatine and adds moisture and richness to the mixture.

The step that matters

Fold the egg whites gently. Beaten egg whites hold air that gives the dessert its lightness. Vigorous stirring deflates that foam, so the set Charlotte Russe turns dense instead of airy.

“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.

More charlotte russe recipes

Pineapple 6Chocolate 5 See all 408 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes