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Dessert

Gooseberry Charlotte

A gelatin dessert made with gooseberries, whipped cream, and gelatine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Gooseberry Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare the gooseberries as for Gooseberry Fool.

  2. Oil a china mould.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine in a little milk.

Make and set the charlotte

  1. When the gooseberries are cold, stir in the whipped cream and dissolved gelatine.

  2. Stir well until it begins to set, then pour into the mould.

  3. Use when completely 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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

Sugar and milk barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Gooseberries
Provide the main fruit body and tart flavour of the dessert.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, airy texture to the set mixture.
Gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when turned out of the mould.
Sugar
Sweetens the tart gooseberries to balance their acidity.

The step that matters

Stir until it begins to set, then pour into the mould. Gelatine sets as it cools, so if the mixture is poured too late it may not fill the mould, and if it sets fully first it will not settle evenly. Pouring at the point of slight thickening lets it fill the mould while holding its structure.

“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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