Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓
Charlotte of Apples
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples and mold
Stew the apples until soft and make a puree.
Butter a round or oval mold.
Prepare the bread
Cut the bread into thin slices about 2 inches wide and the depth of the mold.
Cut two round pieces from the bread for the top and bottom of the mold.
Dip one round piece in clarified butter and place it at the bottom of the mold.
Arrange the remaining bread slices around the sides of the mold.
Fill and bake
Spread some apple puree at the bottom and add 5 or 6 stewed apples.
Fill some holes with preserved cherries and others with apricot jam.
Cover the apples with more puree and add another layer of stewed apples.
Repeat the filling process as before.
Dip the second round piece of bread in butter and place it on top.
Seal the top with additional bread pieces if necessary.
Bake in a 350°F (175°C) oven for nearly an hour.
Serve
Carefully turn out the charlotte when ready to serve.
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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Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
-
Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Butter + apricottop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,458 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the main filling, softening into a puree that moistens and sweetens the charlotte.
- Bread
- Forms the structural shell around the filling, holding its shape as the charlotte bakes.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread brown and crisp while preventing sticking.
- Apricot jam
- Adds concentrated fruit sweetness and flavour to pockets within the filling.
- Preserved cherries
- Add sweet-tart fruit flavour and contrasting texture among the apples.
The step that matters
Dip the bread in butter before placing it. Butter coats the bread so it toasts and firms in the oven rather than soaking up apple juice and turning soggy, which helps the charlotte hold its shape when turned out.
Swap the apricot
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, bread):
- Pearfits about as well
- Figfits about as well
- Apricotthe original
- Peachfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, bread. 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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