Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Charlotte Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mold
Layer 3/4 cup of jelly in the bottom of a mold and arrange cherries around the edge. Place in a cool place to set.
Butter the sides of the mold and arrange the trimmed biscuits around the sides.
Make the cream filling
Dissolve the gelatin in 1/4 cup of water and add the sugar.
Whip the cream and strain the dissolved gelatin into it.
When nearly cold, pour the mixture into the prepared mold.
Set and serve
Once set, dip the mold in warm water and turn out.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,235 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,009 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,874 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cream
- Whipped to form the light, airy body of the filling.
- Leaf gelatine
- Sets the cream filling so it holds its shape when turned out.
- Biscuits
- Form the structural edge that holds the filling in the mold.
- Jelly
- Forms a set, sweet layer that becomes the top of the dessert.
The step that matters
Pouring the cream mixture when nearly cold. If the gelatine mixture is still warm, it can melt the jelly layer or thin the whipped cream, which deflates it and stops it setting cleanly. If it is too cold, it sets before filling the mold 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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