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Dessert

Mo,ck Charlotte

A molded dessert of cornstarch cooked with water and sugar, then folded into beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Mo,ck Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cornstarch base

  1. Moisten corn starch with a little cold water.

  2. Add ½ cup cold water.

  3. Add 1 pint boiling water.

  4. Cook, stirring continually, until clear and transparent.

  5. Add sugar.

  6. Remove from heat.

Finish and set

  1. Pour hot mixture into beaten egg whites.

  2. Flavor to taste.

  3. Turn into a mold to cool.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  2. Corn + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together7,168 recipes

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

  3. Corn + eggtop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,484 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e)-2-octenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Corn starch
Thickens the liquid into a smooth, set dessert as it cooks and cools.
Egg whites
Beaten to foam, they add lightness and airy texture to the mixture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the mild, starchy base.

The step that matters

Cook, stirring continually, until clear and transparent. Cornstarch thickens only when heated, and it can scorch or form lumps if left unstirred. Cooking until clear shows the starch has fully gelatinized, which gives a smooth set.

“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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