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Dessert

Dutch Charlotte

A chilled dessert of Savoy biscuits, chocolate custard, and thick cream, set in a jelly base.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and angelica share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 69 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓

Dutch Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Set the jelly base

  1. Line the bottom of a Charlotte mould with a thin layer of jelly and decorate with slices of cherries and angelica. Set aside to firm up.

Make the chocolate cream

  1. Mix the chocolate with a little boiling water to form a smooth paste. Combine it with the milk and sugar in a saucepan and stir until it boils. Let it boil for five minutes.

  2. Soak the gelatine. Dissolve the gelatine over low heat, straining out excess water. Add the dissolved gelatine to the milk mixture.

  3. Strain the mixture into a basin. Flavor with vanilla and let cool.

  4. Whisk the cream. Fold the cream into the cooled mixture.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the jelly in the mould is set, line the sides with the biscuits, trimming them to fit closely. Brush the edges with egg white to hold them in place.

  2. Before the cream mixture begins to set, carefully pour it into the mould without disturbing the biscuits. Place in a cool area until firm.

  3. To serve, dip the bottom of the mould in hot water, then turn out onto a silver or glass dish and garnish with chopped jelly.

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. Biscuit + angelicatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  2. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

  3. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  4. Vanilla + angelicatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together170 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

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

Savoy biscuits
Form the sides of the mould and hold their shape around the set cream.
Gelatine
Sets the cream so the dessert holds its shape when turned out.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture when folded into the mixture.
Milk
Forms the creamy base that the chocolate and sugar are cooked into.
Chocolate
Gives the cream its flavor and dark color.
Wine jelly
Forms a set layer on the bottom that becomes the top when turned out.

The step that matters

Pour the cream before it sets. Gelatine begins to set as the mixture cools. If the cream is too firm, it will not settle smoothly around the biscuits, and if it is too runny it may seep through gaps and disturb the lining.

Swap the angelica

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits about as well
  3. Angelicathe original
  4. Peppermintfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, wine, sugar, milk, chocolate, vanilla, cream. 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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