Skip to main content
Dessert

Charlotte Russe

A chilled custard dessert made with gelatin, sweet cream, eggs, sugar, wine, and sponge cake.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and sugar 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 Russe

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the custard

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 30 minutes until soft.

  2. Heat the sweet cream in a saucepan and dissolve the gelatine in it over low heat, stirring well.

  3. Beat the egg yolks with the sugar until combined, then strain the cream mixture into the yolks while stirring continuously.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and simmer over low heat until thick, being careful not to boil.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once cooled, fold in the beaten egg whites mixed with sugar and the wine, adding vanilla extract if needed.

  2. Line molds with sponge cake slices, fill with the mixture, and chill until set.

  3. To serve, turn out onto glass dishes or china plates.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 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. Vanilla + winetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together887 recipes

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

  5. Cream + winetop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,887 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Vanilla and sugar 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 cream mixture so it holds its shape when turned out.
Egg yolks
Thicken the cream and add richness and colour to the custard.
Egg whites
Whipped into the mixture to lighten its texture and add airiness.
Sweet cream
Provides fat and moisture, giving the set dessert a smooth, rich texture.
Sponge cake slices
Lines the molds, giving the charlotte a soft structure and cake base.

The step that matters

Simmer the custard without boiling. Egg yolks thicken at gentle heat but curdle and turn grainy if boiled, so the custard must stay below a simmer while it thickens.

“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.

More charlotte russe recipes

Pineapple 6Chocolate 5 See all 408 →

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipes