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Dessert

Charlotte De Russe

A chilled dessert made with cream, eggs, sugar, gelatin, sherry, and ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Charlotte De Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Beat the egg yolks and mix in the sugar.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the hot milk.

  3. Add the dissolved gelatin to the yolk mixture.

  4. Flavor the mixture with sherry.

Fold and set

  1. Beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

  2. Fold the beaten egg whites and whipped cream into the yolk mixture until cool.

  3. Line a bowl with ladyfingers.

  4. Pour the mixture into the lined bowl.

  5. Refrigerate until set.

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. Milk + sherrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

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

  4. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  5. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken and enrich the base, while whites add airy lightness when beaten and folded in.
Thick cream
Adds richness and moisture, and its whipped volume lightens the set dessert.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard base and balances the flavor.
Lady fingers
Form a sponge-like lining that gives the charlotte its structure and edge.

The step that matters

Folding in the egg whites and cream until cool. If the gelatine mixture is still warm, the cream and whites will deflate and the set will be weak. Folding gently keeps the air beaten into the whites and cream, and cooling the base first helps it set evenly.

“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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