Skip to main content
Dessert

Charlotte De Russe

A chilled gelatin dessert made with eggs, sugar, cream, vanilla, and milk.

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

Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 ↓

Charlotte De Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of fresh sweet milk.

  2. Whip the cream to stiff peaks.

  3. Beat the eggs separately.

  4. Stir the dissolved gelatine until lukewarm; do not let it boil.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks, then add the sugar and beat well.

  2. Fold in the egg whites and add vanilla.

  3. Pour the lukewarm gelatine into the egg mixture while stirring continuously.

  4. Gently fold in the whipped cream.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a glass dish or small glasses; it will set quickly.

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. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a soft, sliceable structure as it cools.
Eggs
Add richness and structure through the yolks, and airy lightness through the beaten whites.
Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds lightness and a rich, creamy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilise the beaten egg yolks.

The step that matters

Stir the dissolved gelatine until lukewarm; do not let it boil.. Gelatine that is too hot can lose its setting strength, and if it is added while still hot it can scramble the eggs or thin the mixture. Cooling it to lukewarm lets it blend smoothly and set properly.

“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