Name: Charlotte Russe
Ingredients: 2 teaspoons gelatine; ⅓ cup cold water; 1 tablespoon sherry; 4 cups scalded cream; ½ cup whipped cream; ½ cup powdered sugar; 6 lady fingers

Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.
Add the hot cream and sugar to the gelatine.
Place the bowl in ice water and stir constantly until it thickens.
Add the vanilla and pour slowly over the whipped cream.
Trim the sides of the lady fingers and place them crust side against the mould, spaced half an inch apart.
Fill the mould with the mixture.
Chill thoroughly, then turn out onto a glass dish.

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.

Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,038 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).