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Dessert

Banana Charlotte

A baked banana and bread dessert with apricot jam, rum, and butter.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Banana Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA brisk oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter a plain mold or deep pie dish generously.

  2. Cut a thin piece of bread to cover the bottom of the mold, butter both sides, and fit it in.

  3. Cut oblong slices of bread, buttered on both sides, and line the sides of the mold, ensuring they fit closely together.

Prepare the filling

  1. Cut the bananas in half lengthwise, then divide them across, and cut in half lengthwise again.

  2. Place the banana pieces in a dish, pour the rum or liqueur and lemon juice over them, and let them soak for a while.

  3. Sprinkle the soaked bananas with sugar.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the banana pieces in the prepared mold, spreading apricot jam on top, and repeat until the mold is full.

  2. Cover the top with slices of bread dipped in clarified butter, fitting them closely together.

  3. Place a tin plate on top with a weight, and bake in a brisk oven at 400°F (200°C) for 45 to 60 minutes.

Serve

  1. Once cooked, drain the butter from the mold, gently turn out onto a dish, and sift sugar over the top.

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. Banana + apricottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate (fruity).

  2. Banana + rumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together183 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Bread + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  4. Apricot + rumtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together149 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Rum + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,007 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bananas
Provide the main soft filling and sweetness that sets against the bread.
Bread
Forms the structure of the mold and absorbs butter so the shape holds when turned out.
Apricot jam
Adds fruity sweetness and moisture between the banana layers.
Rum or liqueur
Adds aroma and flavor to the soaked bananas.
Butter
Adds fat that browns the bread and keeps the crust crisp and rich.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the bananas and helps them caramelize slightly during baking.

The step that matters

Fitting the bread closely in the mold. Bread that is loosely fitted leaves gaps that let the soft filling escape or collapse, so the charlotte may not hold its shape when turned out. Tight fitting and well-buttered bread browns evenly and gives a firm outer case.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (banana, apricot, bread, sugar, rum, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against banana, apricot, bread, sugar, rum, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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