Why it works: Flour and butter are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 12% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓
Charlotte Riodkknk, a L’ananas
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the biscuit
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Prepare a biscuit mixture with sugar, flour, melted butter, egg yolks, beaten egg whites, salt, and orange sugar.
Spread the mixture on a baking sheet to a thickness of ½ inch.
Ice and decorate the pieces
Cut the spread into 4-inch wide strips and coat them with orange royal icing.
Cut the strips into 1 to 1.5-inch tall pieces and let the icing dry.
Decorate each piece with a piping bag, using gelée de groseilles or coings.
Trim the sides of the pieces for better fitting.
Assemble and serve
Assemble the pieces upright in a mold, with a round biscuit base.
Prepare a pineapple bavarois mixture and combine it with diced candied pineapple.
Pour the mixture into the center of the charlotte and refrigerate for one hour.
Invert the charlotte onto a serving plate.
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.
-
Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
-
Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
-
Butter + eggtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118,967 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
-
Sugar + buttertop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together98,233 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
- Egg whites
- Whipped and folded in, they lighten the batter and give the biscuit its airy structure.
- Egg yolks
- Add richness and tenderness to the biscuit and help it set as it bakes.
- All-purpose flour
- Forms the gluten network that gives the baked biscuit its body so the strips hold their shape.
- Unsalted butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and a rich flavor to the biscuit.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the biscuit and helps it brown lightly while baking.
The step that matters
Pour the mixture into the center of the charlotte. The bavarois needs to be poured gently into the centre of the upright biscuit pieces so it does not spill or run between them. Chilling for one hour lets it set firm enough to invert cleanly.
Swap the orange
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, flour, butter, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Orangethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, flour, butter, egg. 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.
More pineapple charlotte recipes
You might also like
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipes
Orange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes
Orange Gelatin100 recipes
Orange Sherbet73 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.