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A Charlotte

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

A Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slow oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

  1. Butter a mold generously and line it with thin slices of bread, about 2 inches wide and the same depth as the mold.

  2. Dip the bread in warm clarified butter, overlapping each piece slightly.

  3. Cut a piece of bread for the bottom of the mold, dip it in butter, and place it inside.

  4. Brush the bread with beaten egg to help it stick together when baked.

  5. Prepare the apple marmalade: peel and core the apples, boil them in a little water with cinnamon, cloves, and lemon peel until soft.

  6. Rub the cooked apples through a fine sieve, then return them to a small pan with enough sifted sugar to sweeten.

  7. Boil the apple mixture for about 10 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking, and add lemon juice to taste.

  8. Fill the lined mold with the apple marmalade and cover it with tart paste.

  9. Bake in a slow oven at 300°F (150°C) for 45 minutes, then turn it out onto a dish.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,598 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).

  3. Apple + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,774 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

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

  5. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (bread, butter, egg, apple, cinnamon, clove, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against bread, butter, egg, apple, cinnamon, clove, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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