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Dessert

Mocha Charlotte Russe

A chilled coffee and gelatin dessert with whipped cream and egg yolks.

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

Mocha Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the coffee custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 20 minutes.

  2. Add sugar to the coffee and heat until dissolved and bubbling. Remove from heat.

  3. Dissolve gelatine in the coffee.

  4. Stir in slightly beaten egg yolks over low heat until thickened, without boiling.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. Cool it.

Set and assemble

  1. Once it starts to thicken, set it in ice water.

  2. Beat until light.

  3. Fold in the chilled whipped cream until it holds its shape.

  4. Arrange in a mold lined with lady fingers.

  5. Chill.

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

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

  2. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

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

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

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

  5. Egg + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together42,166 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

Egg and cream barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 42,166 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 liquid mixture so the charlotte holds its shape when chilled.
Egg yolks
Thicken the coffee mixture into a rich custard.
Chilled cream
Adds lightness and moisture when whipped and folded in.
Sugar
Sweetens the coffee and balances its bitterness.
Strong coffee
Provides the main flavour of the mocha custard.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks without boiling. Egg yolks thicken through gentle heat; if the custard boils, the yolks can scramble and turn grainy, and the mixture will not set smoothly.

“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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