Why it works: Biscuit and angelica share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 69 recipes. Both carry coumarin, which smells sweet, hay. The science ↓
Charlotte Russe
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the mould
Line a clean, dry, straight tin with Savoy biscuits, standing them up tightly.
Ornament the bottom with dried cherries, angelica, or any preserved fruit.
Set and serve
Dissolve the gelatine in a little milk and add it to the custard.
When the mixture is nearly cold, fill the mould carefully to avoid spilling between the biscuits.
Ensure the jelly is firm before turning it out.
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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Biscuit + angelicatop 4% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together69 recipes
Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Savoy biscuits
- Form the structure and outer wall of the dessert as they hold the shape when filled.
- Gelatine
- Sets the custard so it holds its shape when turned out of the mould.
- Custard
- Forms the creamy body of the dessert and carries the set gelatine.
The step that matters
Fill the mould when nearly cold. If the custard is too warm it thins the gelatine's setting and can leak out between the biscuits. Letting it cool nearly to setting point keeps it thick enough to stay put while the gelatine firms it.
“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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