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Dessert

Charlotte Polonaise

A layered dessert of sponge cake, chocolate and almond custard, topped with meringue.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Corn and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 485 recipes. Both carry 2,4-decadienal, which smells seaweed. The science ↓

Charlotte Polonaise

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks with the corn starch.

  2. Add the cream and boil slowly, stirring constantly until thick and smooth.

  3. Divide the mixture in half.

Make the two fillings

  1. To one half, add the chocolate and sweeten to taste, then break the macaroons into the chocolate mixture.

  2. Bring the chocolate mixture to a boil and set it aside to cool.

  3. For the other half, mix the bitter almonds, sweet almonds, pounded citron, and sugar, then bring the almond mixture to a boil.

  4. Set the almond mixture aside to cool.

Assemble and bake

  1. Bake a sponge cake in jelly cake molds.

  2. Spread one cake with the chocolate mixture.

  3. Spread another cake with the almond mixture.

  4. Stack the cakes.

  5. Cover the whole with a meringue.

  6. Place in the oven to harden and brown slightly.

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. Corn + almondtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together485 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  2. Chocolate + almondtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  5. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the cream into a smooth custard when heated and bind the mixture.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard so it sets firm rather than runny.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, forming the body of both fillings.
Chocolate
Gives the filling its flavor and deep color, sweetened to taste.
Sweet almonds
Add nutty flavor and a fine, rich texture to the almond filling.
Macaroons
Soften into the chocolate filling, adding texture and almond-like sweetness.

The step that matters

Boiling the custard while stirring constantly. Starch-thickened custard can scorch on the bottom or stay lumpy if not stirred constantly. Cooking until it thickens fully gathers the starch so the filling sets smooth rather than thin.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, corn, cream, chocolate, sugar):

  1. Almondthe original
  2. Peanutfits about as well
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Chestnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, corn, cream, chocolate, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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