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Dessert

Cocoanut Charlotte

A chilled custard dessert made with gelatin, cream, eggs, sugar, coconut, and macaroons.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and coconut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,294 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Cocoanut Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak 1/4 box of Knox gelatin in ½ cup water.

  2. Scald 1 cup of cream.

  3. Pour the hot cream over 4 beaten eggs mixed with ¾ cup sugar.

  4. Stir until it thickens.

  5. Add the gelatin. Stir briefly.

  6. Strain the mixture.

  7. Set aside until chilled.

Assemble and set

  1. When it begins to thicken, fold in the crushed macaroons, vanilla, sherry, grated coconut, and whipped cream.

  2. Mold the mixture.

  3. Chill until set.

  4. Serve with additional whipped cream.

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. Vanilla + coconuttop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,294 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Cream + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Thicken the cream mixture into a custard as they set with gentle heat.
Gelatin (in the method)
Sets the mixture so it holds its molded shape when chilled.
Macaroons
Add body and a toasty, almond-like sweetness that absorbs the custard.
Whipped cream
Adds lightness and moisture, giving the set dessert a airy texture.
Grated coconut
Adds chewy texture and coconut flavor throughout the dessert.

The step that matters

Add the gelatin and fold in the rest while the mixture is only beginning to thicken. Gelatin sets quickly as it cools. If the custard is already firm, the macaroons and whipped cream will not blend evenly, and if it is too hot the whipped cream will deflate and lose its air.

Swap the coconut

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, egg, sugar, vanilla, sherry):

  1. Strawberryfits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Coconutthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, egg, sugar, vanilla, sherry. 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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