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Dessert

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

A layered dessert of cream, macaroons, and lemon, flavored with cinnamon and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By Eliza Acton · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine a pint of rich cream with a stick of cinnamon slightly bruised and the rind of a lemon; heat over a clear fire until it boils.

  2. Sweeten with six ounces of well-refined sugar in lumps.

  3. When the mixture boils, stir in four teaspoonsful of the finest flour and simmer for four or five minutes, stirring gently without ceasing.

  4. Pour the mixture out and allow it to cool.

  5. When it is quite cold, mix in the strained juice of two moderate-sized and very fresh lemons, adding by degrees.

Assemble and serve

  1. Take a quarter of a pound of macaroons, cover the bottom of a glass dish with a portion of them, pour in a part of the cream, lay the remainder of the macaroons upon it, add the rest of the cream, and ornament it with candied citron sliced thin.

  2. It should be made the day before it is wanted for table.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

573Calories
14 gProtein
7 gFat
114 gCarbs

Counts 5 of 6 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Cream1 tbsp (15ml) heavy51
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Cinnamon1 tsp ground (2.6g)6
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Eliza Acton. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Cinnamon + flourtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 (in the method)
Not used in this record.
Cream
Forms the rich, thick body of the custard-like filling.
Macaroons
Soak up the cream and give the trifle its soft, layered texture.
Flour
Thickens the cream as it simmers so it sets firm when cooled.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the cream.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and balances the acidity of the lemon.

The step that matters

Adding the flour while the cream boils. Flour must be stirred in steadily and simmered with constant stirring so it hydrates evenly and thickens the cream without lumps or scorching on the pan bottom.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, cinnamon, flour):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, cinnamon, flour. 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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