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Dessert

Trifle, Apple

A layered dessert of apples, custard, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Trifle, Apple

Ingredients

Directions

Make the whipped cream

  1. Combine 1 pint heavy cream, 2 ounces sugar, ⅓ cup sherry, and 1 egg white to make whipped cream.

  2. Whip until frothy and set aside in a cool place.

Cook and sieve the apples

  1. Combine sliced apples, 2 tablespoons sugar, and 2 tablespoons water in a saucepan.

  2. Simmer gently until the apples are soft.

  3. Press the cooked apples through a sieve.

  4. Mix the pulped apples with grated rind of ½ lemon and 1 tablespoon brandy, if using.

Make the custard and assemble

  1. Heat ½ pint heavy cream, ½ pint milk, and a little sugar over low heat until it thickens, but do not let it boil.

  2. Layer the pulped apples at the bottom of a trifle dish.

  3. Pour the cooled custard over the apples.

  4. Top with the whipped cream and optionally decorate with stripes of bright apple jelly.

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 + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

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

  4. Apple + brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,291 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Apple + milktop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together4,104 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Whipped into a light topping and thickens the custard layer, adding richness.
Apples
Cooked and pulped to form the fruit base, giving body and a soft texture.
Egg white
Whipped with the cream to help it foam and hold a lighter structure.
Milk
Forms the custard base with the cream, giving a smooth, set texture when thickened.
Sugar
Sweetens the apples, the cream and the custard.

The step that matters

Heating the custard without boiling. Heating the cream and milk over low heat lets the mixture thicken gently. Boiling can curdle or scorch the dairy, leaving a grainy or uneven custard.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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