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Charlotte Russe a LA Plombieres

A chilled almond and cream dessert set in a biscuit shell.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Biscuit and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe a LA Plombieres

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Trim edges of biscuits and cut off tips.

  2. Line bottom and sides of a charlotte mold with biscuits, arranging them closely together.

Make the filling

  1. Boil milk and pour over ground almonds, then add maraschino liqueur and sugar, stirring well.

  2. Melt gelatine in a little water or milk and strain into mixture.

  3. Whip cream to stiff peaks and gradually fold into cooled milk mixture.

  4. Before mixture sets, carefully pour into prepared mold without disturbing biscuits.

Chill and serve

  1. Place mold on ice for about 1.5 hours.

  2. To serve, turn contents of mold onto a silver or glass 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. Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Milk + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

What each ingredient does

Finger biscuits
Form the outer shell and structure of the dessert once the mold is turned out.
Gelatine
Sets the cream and milk mixture so the dessert holds its shape when unmolded.
Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds lightness and a rich, creamy texture.
Ground almonds
Add body and a nutty flavour to the milk-based filling.
Milk
Forms the base of the filling, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Pour before the mixture sets. Gelatine begins to firm as it cools, so the filling must still be fluid enough to pour. If it sets early it can be lumpy, and pouring it roughly can disturb the biscuit lining.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, milk, cream, sugar):

  1. Pistachiofits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Chestnutfits less well
  4. Hazelnutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, milk, cream, sugar. 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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