Name: Charlotte Russe
Ingredients: ½ lb ratafia biscuits; ½ pint cream; 1 oz sugar; 1 tablespoon sherry; 1 tablespoon raspberry jam; ½ oz gelatine; 1 teaspoon vanilla

Why it works: Raspberry and vanilla work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Charlotte Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Rub the raspberry jam through a sieve.
Dip the ratafia biscuits first into the jam, then into the sherry.
Line the sides of a mold with the dipped biscuits.

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.

Raspberry + vanillatop 2% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together950 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).
Sherry + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together506 recipes

Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).
Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together35,032 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Biscuit + vanillatop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together422 recipes

Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).
Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

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

Swap the raspberry

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

Strawberryfits about as well
Figfits about as well
Apricotfits about as well
Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, cream, sugar, sherry, vanilla. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.