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Charlotte Russe - delectable dessert - Tsar or Queen?



Queen CharlotteCharlotte Russe is a dessert invented by the French chef Marie Antoine Carême (1784-1833), who named it in honor of his Russian employer Czar Alexander I ("Russe" being the French equivalent of the adjective, "Russian"). It is a cold dessert of Bavarian cream set in a mold lined with ladyfingers. 1. One etymology suggests it is a corruption of the Old English word charlyt meaning "a dish of custard." There is a lot of doubt surrounding the origins of the name "charlotte." Meat dishes that were known as charlets were popular in the 15th century. Other historians say that this sweet dish took its name from Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), wife of George III. 2. Charlotte Russe is mentioned in the song "This Could Be the Start of Something Big" from the 1954 TV musical productionCharlotte Russe Dessert The Bachelor, composed by Steve Allen. Charlotte Russe also refers to a treat once popular in Brooklyn: "The classic French dessert called Charlotte Russe is an elegant mold of ladyfingers, filled with flavored Bavarian cream. But to old-time Brooklynites, a Charlotte Russe was a round of sponge cake topped with sweetened whipped cream, chocolate sprinkles, and sometimes a marashcino cherry, surrounded by a frilled cardboard holder with a round of cardboard on the bottom. As the cream went down, you pushed the cardboard up from the bottom, so you could eat the cake...these were Brooklyn ambrosia." ---The Brooklyn Cookbook, Lyn Stallworth and Rod Kennedy, Jr. (p. 386).
Tsar Alexander II
"A pudding made in a mould with sponge fingers or bread slices. There are two principal kinds: baked and unbaked. The best-known baked Charlotte is Apple Charlotte...It seems clear that this Charlotte began life in Britain. The Oxford English Dictionary gives the earliest relevant appearance of 'charlotte' in print as 1796, and at least one recipe for Apple charlotte was published within ten years or so. The name may have been bestowed in honour of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818), Charlotte Russe dessertwife of George III, said to be a patron of apple growers...The principal unbaked charlotte is Charlotte (a la) Russe. Here the mould is lined with sponge fingers. In some fancy versions, these are omitted from the bottom, which is covered with a decorative arrangement of glace fruit with a layer of jelly cementing it into a mosaic. The mould is filled up with a rich cream filling containing gelatin, so that it sets and can be turned out...The history of this item seems to have begin with the famous French chef Careme, at the beginning of the 19th century, probably when he was working for the Prince Regent in England, and perhaps after he had come across the British baked charlotte. In fact he called his invention Charlotte a la parisienne; it is said to have acquired the name russe at a banquet in honour of Tsar Alexander I, or because of the switch in France to service a la Russe. Claudine Brecourt-Villars...dates the appearance of the term charlotte in a French recipe book to 1806..." –Oxford Companion to Food, Alan Davidson (p. 157)

Alexander I, Tsar of Russia, 1777-1825 An on-off supporter of Napoleon Bonaparte, Tsar Alexander ended by being one of the French Emperor's most implaccable foes.