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Dessert

Arrowroot Charlotte

A custard-like dessert made with arrowroot, milk, vanilla, sponge cakes, sherry, and jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Arrowroot Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Line a mold with thinly cut stale sponge cakes and sprinkle with sherry.

  2. Mix the flour and arrowroot with enough cold milk to make a smooth paste.

Make the custard

  1. Heat the remaining milk in a saucepan.

  2. Stir in the flour and arrowroot mixture just before it boils.

  3. Boil for a few minutes, stirring constantly.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Set and serve

  1. Let it cool completely.

  2. Turn it out of the mold and spread with jelly or jam.

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. Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together525 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Arrowroot + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together242 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the milk into a smooth custard that sets firm when cooled.
Flour
Adds body and helps thicken the custard alongside the arrowroot.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens and sets.
Stale sponge cakes
Provide the structure that holds the charlotte's shape around the custard.

The step that matters

Stirring in the flour and arrowroot paste just before boiling. Starch thickens when heated, but if the paste is added too early or left unstirred it can clump or scorch on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring keeps the starch dispersed so the custard turns smooth.

“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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