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Dessert

Charlotte Eusse

A chilled dessert of double cream, sugar, isinglass, milk, maraschino, and finger biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 Eusse

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Line the bottom and sides of a plain mold with trimmed finger biscuits.

Make the cream filling

  1. Beat the double cream until frothy and sweeten with sugar.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in the milk and mix in the maraschino.

  3. Combine the cream and isinglass mixture.

  4. Pour the mixture into the mold.

Set and serve

  1. Set the mold on ice for 2 hours.

  2. Turn it out and serve.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  3. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

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

  4. Milk + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Double cream
Provides the rich fat and body that gives the set charlotte its creamy texture.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like setting agent that firms the cream so it holds its shape when turned out.
Finger biscuits
Form the outer structure and sponge-like shell that holds the molded cream.
Maraschino
Adds liqueur flavor and aroma to the cream filling.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass in the milk. Isinglass must be fully dissolved before it is combined with the cream, since undissolved granules won't set evenly and can leave the filling lumpy or weak once chilled.

“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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