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Dessert

Trifle, Swiss

A layered dessert of macaroons, ratafias, brandy, lemon, cinnamon, custard, and almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,514 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Trifle, Swiss

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Crumble the macaroons and ratafias, and place them at the bottom of a glass dish.

  2. Pour the brandy over the crumbled mixture.

Make the custard

  1. Soak the lemon rind and cinnamon in the cream, then remove them.

  2. Sweeten the cream.

  3. Stir in the ground rice or flour mixed with a little cold milk.

  4. Heat the mixture over gentle heat until it boils.

  5. Simmer for 4 minutes while stirring constantly.

  6. Pour the custard out and let it cool.

  7. Gradually add the strained lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Spread the custard over the biscuits.

  2. Top with blanched and sliced almonds.

  3. Make this trifle a few hours before serving.

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. Cinnamon + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Cinnamon + ricetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,137 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Rice + almondtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  5. Rice + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream
Provides richness and body, giving the custard a smooth, creamy texture.
Ground rice or fine flour
Starch thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a set, spoonable texture.
Macaroons
Crumbled biscuits form the soft, absorbent base that holds the brandy and custard.
Ratafias
Almond-flavoured crumbled biscuits add sweetness and a soaked, tender base layer.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that soaks into the crumbled biscuits.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet, rich custard.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard while it simmers. Starch from the ground rice or flour can settle and scorch on the base of the pan, and clump into lumps if not stirred constantly. Constant stirring keeps the custard smooth and evenly thickened as it cooks.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (brandy, cream, cinnamon, rice, milk, almond):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, cream, cinnamon, rice, milk, almond. 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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