Why it works: Apple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 777 recipes. Both carry gamma-undecalactone, which smells peach, sweet. The science ↓
Apple Charlotte
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a rather brisk oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the apple marmalade
In a stewpan, combine apples, sugar, butter, lemon peel, cinnamon, and water.
Cover and boil on high heat until apples are melted.
Remove the lid and stir over high heat until the mixture thickens into marmalade.
Line and fill the mold
Line the bottom of a charlotte mold with overlapping bread slices dipped in clarified butter.
Cut oblong squares of bread and dip them in clarified butter.
Line the sides of the mold with the buttered bread squares.
Fill the mold with apple marmalade.
Cover the marmalade with a buttered bread slice.
Place the mold on a baking sheet.
Bake and serve
Bake in a preheated oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
Turn out the baked charlotte onto a dish.
Glaze the charlotte with sifted sugar using a salamander.
Serve the charlotte with diluted apricot jam.
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 + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
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Apple + cinnamontop 4% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together5,598 recipes
Shared aroma: methyl cinnamate (strawberry).
-
Butter + breadtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together27,232 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
-
Cinnamon + apricottop 8% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together618 recipes
Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Apples
- Break down into a soft marmalade that forms the filling's body and sweetness.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken as the moisture cooks off.
- Butter
- Adds richness and helps the bread slices brown and crisp in the oven.
- Stale bread
- Forms the golden shell that holds the apple filling in its shape.
- Clarified butter
- Coats the bread so it browns evenly and crisps rather than soaking up moisture.
The step that matters
Stir the marmalade over high heat until it thickens. The filling must lose most of its free moisture before it goes into the mold. Excess liquid would soften the bread shell and make the charlotte soggy when baked.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, butter, cinnamon, bread, apricot):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, butter, cinnamon, bread, apricot. 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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