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Dessert

Charlotte Busse

A chilled gelatin dessert made with milk, cream, wine, eggs, sugar, and lady-fingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 Busse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard base

  1. Simmer the gelatine in the milk until dissolved.

  2. In a bowl, beat the egg yolks with the sugar until well combined.

  3. Stir the dissolved gelatine into the egg yolk and sugar mixture.

Whip and fold

  1. In another bowl, beat the egg whites to a strong froth.

  2. In a separate bowl, whip the thick cream and white wine to a strong froth.

  3. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites and whipped cream.

Set and serve

  1. Line a mold with lady-fingers or split sponge cake.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined mold and set it on ice.

  3. Let it stand for about five hours until well set.

  4. Turn it out onto a dish to serve.

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

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

  2. Cream + white winetop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

  3. Milk + white winetop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together929 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity).

  4. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  5. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the mixture into a firm, sliceable body as it cools.
Egg yolks
Enrich the custard base and add richness and body to the dessert.
Egg whites
Whipped to a froth, they make the filling light and airy.
Thick cream
Whipped into the filling, it adds lightness, richness and a soft texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard base and balances the richness of the eggs and cream.
Milk
Dissolves the gelatine and forms the liquid base of the custard.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites and cream. Whipped egg whites and cream hold air that gives the charlotte its lightness. Stirring them vigorously deflates the foam, leaving a dense, heavy set, so fold gently and keep the mixture cool enough to hold its structure.

“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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