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Dessert

Charlotte De Russe

A custard and jelly dessert made with sweet cream, egg yolks, sugar, milk, vanilla or bitter almonds, and isinglass or gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 De Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Boil the milk with the vanilla bean or bitter almonds.

  2. Remove from heat, strain the milk, and let it cool.

  3. In a bowl, beat the cream and egg yolks together.

  4. Stir the cooled milk into the cream and egg mixture.

  5. Heat the mixture over low heat, stirring until thick.

Prepare the jelly

  1. Prepare a jelly using isinglass or gelatin according to package instructions.

Assemble and serve

  1. When both the custard and jelly are cool but not hard, mix them together.

  2. Serve with a fresh sponge or almond cake.

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

Sweet cream
Adds richness and a smooth, soft body to the custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they heat and add richness and colour.
Fine loaf sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream and yolks.
Unskimmed milk
Provides liquid for the custard and adds a milder, lighter richness.
Isinglass or sparkling gelatine
Sets the jelly so the mixture holds its shape when chilled.

The step that matters

Heating the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken as they warm, but if the heat is too high they can scramble and curdle. Gentle, steady heat with constant stirring keeps the custard smooth.

“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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