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Dessert

Charlotte Russe , Plain

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, milk, gelatin, powdered sugar, egg whites, and sponge cake or ladyfingers.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 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 ↓

Charlotte Russe , Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard base

  1. Dissolve the sugar and gelatin in the milk, stirring continually. Keep hot but do not let it boil.

  2. Pour the mixture into a dish set in ice water. When nearly cold, pour in half the cream and beat for 10 minutes.

Assemble and finish

  1. Whip the egg whites and stir them in, beating for 5 minutes longer. Add flavoring.

  2. Fill the dish or mold with slices of sponge cake or ladyfingers, then pour in the prepared cream.

  3. Beat the remaining half cup of cream and spread it over the top. Cool on ice if convenient.

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

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

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

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

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

Gelatine
Sets the milk and sugar mixture so the dessert holds its shape when chilled.
Thick whipped cream
Adds lightness and richness, giving a creamy texture to the set dessert.
Egg whites
Whipped to foam, they add airy lightness to the cream mixture.
Rich sweet milk
Forms the liquid base that the gelatine sets into the custard.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the base and dissolves easily into the warm milk.

The step that matters

Add the cream when the mixture is nearly cold. If the gelatine mixture is still too warm, the whipped cream will deflate and melt into it. If it is too cold, the gelatine can set in lumps before the cream is evenly folded in. Nearly cold is the point where it thickens smoothly.

“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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