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Dessert

Charlotte De Russe

A chilled gelatin and whipped cream dessert lined with ladyfingers.

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 De Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in water for 1 hour.

  2. Dissolve the gelatine in a hot water bath.

  3. Cool the dissolved gelatine by immersing the tin in ice water, stirring until just warm.

Make the custard base

  1. In a bowl, combine powdered sugar and the whole egg, and beat well with a wooden paddle.

  2. Add vanilla extract to the egg mixture.

  3. Pour the gelatine into the egg mixture, mixing well.

Whip and combine

  1. Keep the cream cold, and beat it with a whisk until stiff.

  2. Fold the gelatine mixture into the whipped cream until smooth.

Assemble and set

  1. Line a dish with lady fingers, projecting the ends above the top.

  2. Fill the dish with the mixture and smooth the top.

  3. Save some for decoration.

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

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

  3. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + eggtop 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

Sheet gelatine
Sets the mixture so it holds its shape when chilled.
Rich sweet cream
Whipped to stiff foam, it gives the dessert its light, airy body.
Whole egg
Adds richness and helps bind the sugar into the base mixture.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the mixture and dissolves easily into the beaten egg.
Lady fingers
Form the edge lining that gives the dish structure and a sponge-cake contrast.

The step that matters

Fold the gelatine mixture into the whipped cream. Gelatine that is still too hot will melt the whipped cream and deflate its foam, while gelatine that is too cold sets in lumps. Stirring it until just warm keeps it fluid enough to blend smoothly without losing the cream's air.

“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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