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Dessert

Strawberry Charlotte

A layered dessert of sponge cake, custard, and sweetened strawberries topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 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 ↓

Strawberry Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk, egg yolks, and sugar until thickened to make a soft custard. Flavor to taste.

Assemble the charlotte

  1. Line a glass dish with slices of sponge cake dipped in sweet cream.

  2. Add a layer of sweetened strawberries, then another layer of cake and berries.

  3. Once the custard is cold, pour it over the layers.

  4. Beat the egg whites until stiff, add a little sugar, and spread over the top.

  5. Decorate with additional berries.

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

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

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

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the body of the custard, carrying the sugar and egg into a soft, creamy set.
Eggs
Thicken the custard as they heat, and whipped whites give the topping its light structure.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the whipped egg whites hold their stiff structure.
Sponge cake
Provides a soaked, absorbent base that holds the layers together in the dish.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavor and moisture between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Thickening the custard. Egg yolks set when heated, but if the custard gets too hot it can curdle or turn grainy. Heat it gently and stir until it just coats a spoon, so it thickens smoothly enough to hold its shape when cold.

“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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