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 ↓
To Make a Trifle
Ingredients
Directions
Assemble the base
Place slices of Savoy cake or Naples biscuit at the bottom of a deep dish.
Wet the cake with white wine.
Fill the dish nearly to the top with rich boiled custard.
Top and decorate
Season the cream with white wine and sugar, then whip it to a froth.
As the froth rises, lift it lightly and lay it on the custard, piling it up high and attractively.
Decorate with thinly cut preserves, ensuring they do not weigh down the froth.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Biscuit + creamtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,235 recipes
Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).
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White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,760 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).
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Biscuit + sugartop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,874 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Biscuit + white winetop 24% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together109 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Savoy cake or naples biscuit
- Forms the soaked base layer that holds the wine and custard together.
- White wine
- Moistens the cake and adds a light acidity that balances the sweet custard.
- Rich boiled custard
- Provides the creamy, moist middle layer that soaks into the cake.
- Cream
- Whipped into a froth that forms the light, airy topping.
- Preserves
- Add fruity sweetness and a bright flavour contrast to the cream.
The step that matters
Lifting the whipped cream onto the custard. Whipped cream is an foam of trapped air bubbles that collapses easily. Lifting it gently and laying it on, rather than pressing or stirring, keeps the air in and the topping light and piled high.
“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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