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Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A layered dessert made from a baked batter, gelatin custard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 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

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.

Make the sponge

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, mix eggs, sugar, flour, cold water, cream of tartar, and baking soda.

  3. Pour the batter into a shallow pan and bake until golden.

Make the cream filling

  1. Dissolve the gelatin in the milk over hot water, stirring until fully dissolved.

  2. Add sugar and cream to the gelatin mixture, stir well, and let cool until thick.

  3. Fold in the beaten egg whites and vanilla extract.

Assemble and chill

  1. Once cooled, cut the cake into strips and line a large dish or two smaller ones, leaving spaces between the strips.

  2. Pour the mixture into the lined dish and refrigerate for 4 to 5 hours before serving.

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. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

  5. Coffee + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,202 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

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
Whipped whites trap air and give the filling its light, airy structure.
Gelatin
Sets the cream filling so it holds its shape when chilled and sliced.
Flour
Provides the structure that lets the sponge cake rise and hold its strips.
Cream
Adds richness and moisture, giving the filling a smooth, soft texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the cake and filling and helps keep the sponge tender.
Baking soda
Reacts with the cream of tartar to lift the batter as it bakes.

The step that matters

Fold in the beaten egg whites. Folding gently keeps the air in the whites, which gives the filling its lightness. Stirring hard deflates the foam and leaves a dense filling.

“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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