Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream mixture
Dissolve the gelatine in 1 pint of milk over low heat.
Strain the mixture into 1 pint of cream.
Sweeten and flavor the cream to your liking.
Beat the cream mixture until it thickens.
Assemble and set
Arrange the sponge cake in a mold.
Pour the thickened cream over the sponge cake and refrigerate until set.
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together29,399 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together77,875 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the cream mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
- Milk
- Dissolves the gelatine and adds moisture and body to the cream.
- Cream
- Provides richness and fat, and whips to a light, thick texture.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the richness of the cream.
- Sponge cake
- Forms the soft base that the set cream is poured over.
The step that matters
Beat the cream mixture until it thickens. The cream must be beaten only until it thickens, not until stiff, so it can still pour over the cake. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so the mixture should be poured while it is still fluid and spreadable.
“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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