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Dessert

Macaroon Trifle

A chilled dessert made with whipped cream, powdered sugar, almonds, sherry, and macaroon crumbs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar 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 ↓

Macaroon Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Whip the cream until it is as stiff as possible and chill.

  2. Just before serving, add the remaining ingredients.

  3. Serve in sherbet cups.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  2. Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

  3. Cream + almondtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,130 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  4. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  5. Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Double cream
Whipped, its fat and protein trap air, giving the trifle a light, stiff structure.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the cream and dissolves easily, so it blends in without grittiness.
Finely chopped almonds
Add crunch and a nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft cream.
Sherry
Adds aromatic depth and a fruity, slightly sharp flavour to the cream.
Macaroon crumbs
Add chewy texture, sweetness and almond flavour to the layered dessert.

The step that matters

Whipping the cream. Cream should be whipped only until stiff and kept cold. Over-whipping forces the fat globules to clump, giving a grainy, buttery texture instead of a smooth, airy one.

“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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