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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert made with gelatin, eggs, milk, vanilla, sherry, whipped cream, and ladyfingers, garnished with candied cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 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 Russe

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water.

  2. Beat the eggs, sugar, and milk together.

  3. Stir over a double boiler until thickened into custard.

  4. Add the soaked gelatine and stir until dissolved.

  5. Strain the mixture.

Set and fill

  1. Set aside until it begins to thicken.

  2. Add vanilla and sherry.

  3. Whip hard.

  4. Line cups with ladyfingers or sponge cake.

  5. Fill the cups with the mixture.

  6. Garnish with fruits.

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. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

Eggs
Thicken the custard as they cook and give the mixture richness and structure.
Gelatine
Sets the custard so the filled cups hold their shape when chilled.
Heavy cream
Adds whipped volume and a light, creamy texture to the filling.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and adds richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir over a double boiler until thickened into custard. Egg proteins set when heated, so gentle, constant stirring over a double boiler thickens the custard smoothly. Too much heat can scramble the eggs into lumps.

“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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