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Dessert

Charlotte Russk

A custard dessert made with gelatin, cream, eggs, sugar, vanilla, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Charlotte Russk

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Soak the gelatin in 1 teacup of water for 15 minutes.

  2. Make a rich boiled custard with the cream, egg yolks, and sugar, seasoning with vanilla.

  3. Add the soaked gelatin to the custard and let it cool.

Assemble

  1. Once nearly cold, fold in the beaten egg whites.

  2. Line a dish with sponge cake and pour the custard mixture into it.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  4. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + vanillatop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27,347 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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 custard so it holds its shape when chilled.
Cream
Adds richness and body to the custard.
Eggs
Thicken the custard and the beaten whites lighten its texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the richness of the cream.
Sponge cake
Forms the base layer that the custard is poured over.

The step that matters

Folding in the beaten egg whites. Fold gently once the custard is nearly cold; if it is still warm the whites deflate, and if it has set too firmly they will not blend evenly.

“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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