Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
An Apple Charlotte, or Charlotte He Pommes
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Prepare the mold
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Butter a plain mold (a round or square cake tin works well).
Make the filling
Combine the apples with 6 ounces of butter and ¾ pound of sugar.
Cook the mixture until the apples are soft.
Fill the mold to the brim with apple marmalade.
If needed, add quince or apricot jam, or preserved cherries.
Assemble and bake
Line the mold with slices of bread dipped in butter, ensuring they fit tightly together.
Cover the top with more buttered bread slices and place a weight on top.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes if small, or 1 hour if large.
Serve
Carefully turn out the Charlotte.
Serve hot, optionally dusting with sugar or covering with clear red jelly.
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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Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Apple + breadtop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,790 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).
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Apple + buttertop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together8,706 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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Bread + quincetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together36 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Provide the bulk of the filling and, once cooked soft, a moist, sweet-tart body.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread brown and crisp as it bakes.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the apples and helps them caramelise slightly as they cook.
- Bread slices
- Form the structural shell that holds the filling in shape when turned out.
The step that matters
Bake with the weight on top. The weight presses the bread tightly against the filling so the Charlotte holds its shape when turned out. Loose or gappy bread lets the soft filling slump and spill.
Swap the quince
The recipe marks quince as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, sugar, bread):
- Figfits better
- Pearfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Quincethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, sugar, bread. 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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