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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled gelatin dessert with cherries, biscuits, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Set the base

  1. Pour jelly into the bottom of a mold and arrange cherries around the edge.

  2. Place in a cool place to set.

Prepare the mold

  1. Butter the sides of the mold.

  2. Arrange trimmed biscuits around the sides.

Make the cream filling

  1. Dissolve gelatine in water.

  2. Add sugar.

  3. Whip the cream.

  4. Strain into the gelatine mixture.

  5. Pour into the prepared mold.

Serve

  1. Dip the mold in warm water.

  2. Turn out.

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. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + creamtop 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. Butter + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,009 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cream filling so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Whipped, it adds air and richness, giving the filling a light, creamy texture.
Biscuits
Form the structure around the sides of the mold and hold the filling in shape.
Jelly
Forms a set layer at the base that becomes the top when turned out.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream filling and balances the gelatine.

The step that matters

Strain into the gelatine mixture. Gelatine begins to set as it cools, so the whipped cream must be folded in gently and the filling poured promptly, or lumps and loss of air will weaken the set and texture.

“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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