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Dessert

Almond Charlotte

A chilled almond custard dessert made with gelatin, milk, egg yolks, sugar, almond extract, and whipped cream.

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 ↓

Almond Charlotte

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 2 hours.

  2. Blanch and finely chop the almond meats.

  3. Melt 3 tablespoons of sugar in a saucepan, add the almond meats, and stir until slightly browned.

  4. Remove from heat and let the mixture cool, then roll it fine.

Make the custard

  1. In a double boiler, combine milk and the rolled almond meats, and heat over the fire.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with ¾ cup of sugar, then gradually stir into the hot milk mixture.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine and stir for a few moments, then remove from heat and place the dish in ice water.

  4. Flavor with almond extract and beat the mixture until it begins to thicken.

Set and serve

  1. Fold in the whipped cream until thick, then pour into molds and refrigerate until firm.

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. Almond + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  3. Almond + milktop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,800 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Almond + meattop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together486 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Sets the cream into a firm, sliceable structure as it chills.
Almond meats
Provide the main almond flavor and, when browned in sugar, a toasted, nutty taste.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness through their fat and proteins.
Whipped cream
Adds airy lightness and fat, giving the set dessert a soft, creamy texture.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the yolks thicken.

The step that matters

Stirring the yolks into the hot milk. Adding hot milk to yolks too fast can scramble them. Stirring gradually while pouring tempers the eggs so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (meat, sugar, milk, egg, cream):

  1. Pecansfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Walnutfits about as well
  4. Nutsfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against meat, sugar, milk, egg, cream. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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