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Dessert

Strawberry Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge cake, strawberries, custard, and whipped egg whites.

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 ↓

Strawberry Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Combine the yolks of the eggs, half the sugar, and the milk in a saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring constantly until thickened, then remove from heat and let cool.

Layer and assemble

  1. Layer sliced sponge cake in a glass dish and moisten with cream.

  2. Add a layer of ripe strawberries and sprinkle with sugar.

  3. Repeat the layers until the dish is two-thirds full.

  4. Pour the cooled custard over the layers.

Top and serve

  1. Beat the egg whites with the remaining sugar until stiff peaks form.

  2. Spread the whipped egg whites over the custard.

  3. Garnish with red berries and chill before serving.

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

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

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

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

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

Milk and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 77,875 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

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard, and whites beaten to stiff peaks form the light topping.
Sponge cake
Forms the base layers, soaking up the moisture of the cream and custard.
Sweet milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that sets when cooked and cooled.
Ripe strawberries
Add fruity sweetness and bright acidity between the cake layers.
Sugar
Sweetens the custard and helps the beaten egg whites hold their stiff peaks.

The step that matters

Cooking the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken as their proteins set; too much heat or no stirring can scramble them into lumps. Constant stirring over low heat keeps the custard smooth and properly thickened.

“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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