Name: Charlotte De Pommes
Ingredients: butter (for greasing); white bread (enough to cover the dish); apples (thinly sliced); sugar; additional butter (for layering)

Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Charlotte De Pommes

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Prepare the dish

Grease a dish generously with butter.
Line the bottom and sides with slices of white bread.

Assemble

Layer thinly sliced apples with sugar and butter in between.
Soak additional slices of bread in water to cover the apples.
Place a plate and weight on top to press the bread down.

Bake

Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for three hours.

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.

Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together27,232 recipes

Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
Bread + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,790 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
Butter + appletop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,706 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together98,233 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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

Apples: Soften as they bake, supplying moisture, body and tart-sweet flavor to the dessert.
White bread: Forms the structure of the charlotte, holding its shape as it soaks up juices and dries.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and helps the apples and bread brown gently as they cook.
Butter: Adds richness and flavor, and helps the bread turn golden and crisp at the edges.

The step that matters

Bake slowly at 300°F (150°C) for three hours. Low, slow heat lets the apples cook through and soften while moisture evaporates and the bread dries and browns gently without scorching. Hotter heat would brown the outside before the apples are tender.