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 ↓
Charlotte De Pomme
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the apples
Quarter and peel the apples, then place them in a stewpan with butter, lemon peel, cinnamon, and pounded sugar.
Stew the mixture over low heat, stirring with a wooden spoon, then increase the heat until it thickens.
Add apricot marmalade to the apple mixture and stir well.
Line the mold and bake
Prepare a mold by dipping bread in clarified butter and lining the bottom with round pieces.
Cut thin slices of bread for the sides of the mold, dip them in butter, and place them around the sides.
Pour the apple and marmalade mixture into the mold and bake in a hot oven at 400°F (200°C) until golden.
Turn the charlotte onto a dish and serve hot and crisp.
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.
-
Apple + apricottop 2% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together777 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-undecalactone (peach, sweet).
-
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).
-
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
- Provide the bulk of the filling, which softens and thickens into a spoonable purée as it stews.
- Butter
- Adds richness and flavour, and coats the bread so it browns and crisps in the oven.
- Pounded sugar
- Sweetens the filling and helps the apples break down and thicken as they cook.
- Apricot marmalade
- Adds sweetness, fruity flavour and extra body to the apple filling.
- Bread
- Forms the crisp, golden shell that holds the apple filling in shape.
The step that matters
Thickening the apple mixture before it goes into the mold. If the stewed apples stay wet, the filling will seep out and make the bread soggy instead of crisp. Cooking until thick drives off excess moisture so the charlotte holds its shape when turned out.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, butter, cinnamon, sugar, apricot, bread):
- Vanillafits better
- Pearfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against apple, butter, cinnamon, sugar, apricot, 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.
More apple charlotte recipes
You might also like
Apple Bread Pudding21 recipes
Apple Pudding256 recipes
Lemon Cake228 recipes
Bread Pudding153 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.