Skip to main content

Charlotte Russe

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Apple and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,501 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Line a mold with Savoy biscuits.

  2. Layer different kinds of preserves and sliced apples inside the mold.

  3. Prepare vanilla cream by whisking it well.

  4. Dissolve isinglass in the cream after sweetening it.

  5. Pour the vanilla cream into the mold and chill 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. Apple + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,501 recipes

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

  2. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

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

  5. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

Vanilla and sugar 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

Swap the apple

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

  1. Blueberryfits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Applethe original

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

You might also like

Apple PuddingApple Pudding256 recipesBaking Powder BiscuitBaking Powder Biscuit119 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesApple CakeApple Cake80 recipes