Name: Charlotte-russe
Ingredients: lady-fingers; whipped cream; syrup (sugar boiled to crackling); white of an egg; gum arabic (dissolved in water); candied fruits; nuts; pineapple

Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Charlotte-russe

Ingredients

Directions

Arrange lady-fingers diagonally around the sides of a deep conical pan.
Form a star or rosette at the bottom with the lady-fingers.
Brush edges where cake or lady-fingers join with hot syrup or egg white to secure them.
Fill the center with whipped cream and decorate with pineapple, candied fruits, and nuts.
If using eggs in the cream, whip them first.
For individual servings, use small molds instead of one large mold.

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.

Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together5,842 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Cream + syruptop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,964 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Nuts + pineappletop 16% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together162 recipes

Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).
Cream + nutstop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together886 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, syrup, sugar, egg, pineapple):

Chestnutfits better
Almondfits better
Pistachiofits better
Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, syrup, sugar, egg, pineapple. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.