Skip to main content
Dessert

Arroweoot Charlotte

A custard-like dessert made with arrowroot, flour, milk, vanilla, sponge cakes, sherry, and jelly or jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Flour and arrowroot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 525 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

Arroweoot Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the mold

  1. Line a mold with thinly cut stale sponge cakes and sprinkle with sherry.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the flour and arrowroot with enough cold milk to make a smooth paste.

  2. In a saucepan, heat the remaining milk and stir in the flour and arrowroot mixture just before it boils.

  3. Boil for a few minutes, stirring constantly, then pour the mixture into the mold while hot.

Set and serve

  1. Let it cool completely, then turn it out of the mold and spread with jelly or jam.

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. Flour + arrowroottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together525 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  2. Arrowroot + vanillatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together242 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  4. Vanilla + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: piperonal (bitter, coconut).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the milk into a smooth, glossy custard that sets as it cools.
Flour
Adds body and helps stabilise the thickened custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard and gives it a creamy texture.
Stale sponge cakes
Provide a soft, absorbent structure that lines the mold and holds the custard.
Jelly or jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour as a spread on the finished charlotte.

The step that matters

Adding the flour and arrowroot paste to the hot milk. Starches thicken only when heated and stirred. Adding the paste just before boiling and stirring constantly prevents lumps and an uneven, starchy texture.

“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.

You might also like

Vanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesArrowroot PuddingArrowroot Pudding46 recipesWhite CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipes