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Dessert

Strawberry Charlotte

A chilled custard and sponge cake layered with sweetened strawberries, topped with whipped egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Strawberry Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Heat the milk, whisk in egg yolks and sugar until combined to make a boiled custard.

  2. Flavor the custard to taste and let it cool.

Assemble and finish

  1. Line a glass dish with sponge cake slices dipped in sweet cream.

  2. Layer the sponge cake with sweetened ripe strawberries.

  3. Repeat the layers of cake and strawberries.

  4. Pour the cooled custard over the layered cake and strawberries.

  5. Beat egg whites until stiff, adding a little sugar, then pour over the top.

  6. Decorate with ripe berries.

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

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

  2. Milk + creamtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Milk
Forms the base of the boiled custard that moistens and sets the dessert.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they cook and give it richness.
Sponge cake
Soaks up cream and custard to give the charlotte its soft, layered structure.
Strawberries
Add fruit flavor, sweetness and moisture between the cake layers.
Egg whites
Whipped stiff with sugar, they form a light meringue topping.

The step that matters

Cooling the boiled custard. Egg yolk custard thickens as it cooks and can curdle if overheated. It should be cooled before pouring over the cake so the layers stay moist and do not turn soggy or scrambled.

“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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