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Dessert

Plain Charlotte Russe

A custard and meringue layered sponge cake dessert.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Plain Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Bake the cake

  1. Bake the white sponge cake in narrow, shallow pans.

Make the custard

  1. Wet a saucepan with cold water, then pour out the water and add 1 quart of milk.

  2. Boil the milk and cool slightly.

  3. Beat the yolks of 6 eggs with 3 ounces of sugar and ¼ teaspoon salt until thoroughly mixed.

  4. Add the lukewarm milk to the yolk mixture, stir, and pour the mixture into a double boiler.

  5. Stir on the heat until it thickens to a cream consistency, without boiling.

  6. Strain the custard.

  7. Add 2 teaspoons of vanilla when almost cold.

Assemble with meringue

  1. Arrange the sponge cake slices around the sides and bottom of a glass dish.

  2. Pour the custard over the cake slices.

  3. Beat the whites of 4 eggs until light, then add 4 tablespoons of sugar.

  4. Flavor the meringue with lemon or vanilla.

  5. Spread the meringue over the custard.

  6. Brown the meringue slightly in a 350°F (175°C) oven.

Make the wine cream layer and chill

  1. Place thin slices of sponge cake in a glass dish.

  2. Soak the cake slices with ⅓ cup sweet wine.

  3. Beat the whites of 3 eggs until light, then add 3 tablespoons of powdered sugar.

  4. Add 1 glass of sweet wine and 1 pint of thick cream to the mixture, then mix well.

  5. Pour the mixture over the soaked cake.

  6. Chill until served.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Vanilla + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

Sponge cake
Forms the base structure that holds the custard and absorbs the wine.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they gently set, adding richness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when heated.
Egg whites
Whip into a light foam that gives the meringue its airy texture.
Sweet cream
Adds richness and a soft, creamy texture to the topping layer.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps stabilize the beaten egg white meringue.

The step that matters

Heat the custard gently without boiling. Egg yolks set at moderate heat, so boiling can curdle the custard into grainy lumps. Stirring over gentle heat until it coats a spoon gives a smooth cream, and straining removes any bits that form.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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