Skip to main content
Dessert

Macaroon Charlotte

A chilled dessert made with gelatin, cream, milk, eggs, sugar, powdered macaroons, ladyfingers, walnuts, and vanilla or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Macaroon Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for at least 10 minutes.

  2. Whip the cream until stiff.

  3. In a double boiler, heat the milk or thin cream.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the eggs until light, then add sugar and stir into the scalded milk.

  2. Remove from heat, stir in the softened gelatin until dissolved.

  3. Add the powdered macaroons, lady fingers, walnuts, and vanilla or sherry.

  4. Place the mixture in a basin set in chipped ice, stirring constantly until it thickens.

  5. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Chill and set

  1. Pour into a mold and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

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

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

  2. Gelatin + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

  3. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Eggs
Thicken the custard and add richness and structure as they set with heat.
Gelatin
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled and unmolded.
Heavy cream
Whipped, it adds lightness and moisture to the set dessert.
Powdered macaroons
Add almond flavor and body, helping give the charlotte its texture.
Powdered lady fingers
Soak up the custard and give the dessert structure and body.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over ice. Cooling the custard over chipped ice while stirring constantly keeps the eggs from scrambling and lets it thicken evenly before the whipped cream is folded in. If it sets unevenly or the cream is folded in too early, the texture suffers.

Swap the walnut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, cream, milk, egg, sugar, vanilla):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Chestnutfits better
  3. Pistachiofits better
  4. Walnutthe original

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

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes