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Dessert

Jam Charlotte

A baked dessert of jam‑topped stale bread layered in a mold, served with cream or custard.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and bread are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 27,232 recipes. Both carry delta-decalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Jam Charlotte

Oven, in the book's wordsA quick oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Butter a circular mold and sprinkle it with chopped almonds.

  2. Melt the butter and pour it over the stale bread.

Layer and bake

  1. Spread jam on each slice of bread, then sprinkle with sifted sugar.

  2. Layer the jammed bread in the mold, cover with a dish, and bake at 400°F (200°C) for 30 minutes.

Serve

  1. Carefully turn out and serve with or without thick cream or custard.

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 + breadtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together27,232 recipes

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

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

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

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

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

  4. Butter + almondtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,245 recipes

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

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

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

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

What each ingredient does

Stale bread
Forms the body of the charlotte and soaks up butter and jam as it bakes.
Butter
Adds richness and moisture, helping the bread brown and crisp in the oven.
Jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and moistens the bread layers as it heats.
Sweet almonds
Add a nutty flavour and a crisp texture to the outside of the mold.

The step that matters

Carefully turn out. The bread is soft and held together mainly by butter and jam. Letting it cool briefly before inverting the mold helps the layers hold their shape instead of slumping.

“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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