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Dessert

Old Fashioned Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge cake, sherry-soaked, custard, whipped cream, and preserved fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and apple work together. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 395 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Old Fashioned Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the cake

  1. Place the broken sponge cakes in the bottom of a deep glass dish.

  2. Mix the sherry wine, water, and sugar, then pour over the cake.

Make the custard

  1. In a double saucepan, boil the cornstarch and milk.

  2. Slowly pour the hot mixture over the beaten egg yolks mixed with a little cold milk.

  3. Return the mixture to the saucepan and stir constantly until it thickens, but do not boil.

  4. Flavor the custard with vanilla and let it cool before pouring over the cake.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Spread the whipped cream on top and add spoonfuls of preserved fruit.

  2. Decorate with small macaroons.

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. Sherry + appletop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together395 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

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

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

  3. Wine + appletop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,207 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Milk + appletop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

    Shared aroma: 4-heptenal (creamy, biscuit).

  5. Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,479 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard and add richness when gently heated.
Cornstarch
Thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, sliceable custard as it heats.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that the yolks and cornstarch set.
Heavy cream
Whipped to a light, rich topping that contrasts with the soft custard.
Sponge cakes
Act as a soft, absorbent base that soaks up the sherry mixture.
Sherry wine
Adds aromatic flavor and moisture to the sponge cake base.

The step that matters

Stir the custard until it thickens without boiling. Egg yolks can curdle and turn grainy if the custard boils. Cornstarch thickens as it heats, so steady stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly set.

Swap the apple

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, sugar, milk, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits about as well
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Applethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, sugar, milk, egg, cream. 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.

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