Why it works: Vanilla and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
Charlotte-rtjsse
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Soak the gelatine in 1 quart of water with vanilla to flavor.
Boil until reduced to 1 pint, then strain through a sieve.
Beat the yolks of 3 eggs and stir into the jelly.
Sweeten to taste and set aside to cool.
Add the cream and line the mould
Whip 3 pints of cream until frothy, then drain on a sieve.
Stir the whipped cream into the cooled jelly.
Butter a mould and line it with strips of sponge cake, alternating crust and crumb.
Set and unmould
Pour the mixture into the lined mould and set on ice for 3 hours.
To unmould, wrap a cloth soaked in warm water around the mould to melt the butter, then gently remove.
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.
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Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together35,032 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,301 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Vanilla + eggtop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together27,347 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
Vanilla and sugar 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly that holds the shape of the charlotte.
- Cream
- Whipped to a light foam, it adds airiness and richness to the set filling.
- Egg yolks
- Enrich the jelly with fat and colour, giving a smoother, creamier texture.
- Sponge cake
- Lines the mould, giving the set dessert a soft, cake-based outer structure.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the rich cream and egg flavour.
- Vanilla
- Adds a warm aroma to the jelly as it is soaked and reduced.
The step that matters
Stirring the whipped cream into the jelly. The jelly must be cooled but not yet set, otherwise it will not blend smoothly. If it is still warm, the cream's foam collapses and loses volume.
“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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