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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled dessert made with savoy biscuits, gelatin, cream, sherry, brandy, sugar, and glace cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Decorate the bottom of a plain tin mold with glace cherries.

  2. Split the savoy biscuits and trim the edges if necessary.

  3. Line the sides of the mold with the biscuits.

Make the filling

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the water.

  2. Add the sugar, sherry, and brandy to the gelatin mixture.

  3. Whisk the cream until stiff.

  4. Add the gelatin mixture to the cream (when cool, but not cold).

Set and serve

  1. Pour the mixture into the mold.

  2. Allow it to set.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  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. Cream + brandytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

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

  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

Savoy biscuits
Form the lining around the sides, giving the dessert its structure and shape.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid filling so it holds its shape when turned out.
Cream
Whisked to stiffness, it gives the filling its light, airy, rich texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the filling and balances the sherry and brandy.

The step that matters

Add the gelatin mixture to the cream when cool, but not cold. If the gelatin is still hot, it can deflate the whisked cream; if it is cold, it may set in lumps before it blends evenly. Gelatin sets as it cools, so timing matters.

“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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