Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓
Charlotte Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Line the mold
Line the bottom of a round mold with Savoy biscuits, placing them close together in a star pattern.
Line the sides of the mold with biscuits edgeways to form a compact wall.
Place the mold on ice.
Fill and set
Prepare the cream by whipping the heavy cream until thickened.
Add powdered sugar, maraschino, and 4 oz. of isinglass dissolved in cold water.
Fill the mold with the cream mixture while it is on the ice.
Leave it until serving time, then turn it over onto a dish and remove the mold.
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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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,235 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,635 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,874 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Savoy biscuits
- Form the crisp, sturdy outer wall that holds the cream shape when the mold is removed.
- Heavy cream
- Whipped to a light foam that provides the airy, rich body of the dessert.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the whipped cream so it holds its shape.
- Powdered sugar
- Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily into it without graininess.
- Maraschino
- Adds aromatic cherry-almond flavour to the cream.
The step that matters
Adding the isinglass to the cream. Isinglass must be fully dissolved before it goes into the cream, and the mixture should be cold enough to set. Lumps or a warm mix will leave the cream unevenly firm or prevent it from setting properly when chilled on ice.
“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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