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Dessert

Charlotte Pudding

A layered sponge cake dessert with fruit, meringue, and butter, baked and served with sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118,967 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Charlotte Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dip the halved sponge cakes in melted butter.

  2. Layer the sponge cakes and fruit in a pan alternately.

  3. Add a little water to the pan.

Top and bake

  1. Make a meringue by beating the egg whites and sugar until stiff.

  2. Spread the meringue over the top of the layered cakes and fruit.

  3. Bake in a flat dish until hot.

Serve

  1. Serve with sauce.

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. Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together118,967 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  2. Butter + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together98,233 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cakes
Form the soft base and absorb the butter and fruit juices as the pudding bakes.
Egg whites
Whipped with sugar into a meringue that sets and browns over the top.
Sugar
Sweetens the dish and stiffens the egg whites into a stable meringue.
Fruit
Adds moisture, sweetness and acidity between the cake layers.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites and sugar until stiff. Egg whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks so the meringue can trap air and set into a stable topping. Under-beaten whites collapse and make the topping weep or spread flat during baking.

“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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