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Dessert

Raspberry Trifle

A layered dessert of custard, raspberries, sponge cake, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Raspberry Trifle

Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Raspberry Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Scald the milk in a saucepan.

  2. Beat the egg yolks.

  3. Add the granulated sugar and mix well.

  4. Pour the hot milk onto the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  5. Return the mixture to the heat and cook until thickened, stirring continuously.

  6. Strain the custard and let it cool, then add the lemon extract.

Assemble and serve

  1. In a serving dish, layer the sponge cake, followed by raspberries and a little custard.

  2. Repeat the layers, finishing with raspberries piled in a pyramid on top.

  3. Beat the egg whites until stiff.

  4. Add the powdered sugar and spread around the base of the trifle.

  5. Serve very cold.

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.

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.

  1. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Egg + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

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

  4. Milk + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

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

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Egg yolks thicken the custard as they set with heat, and whites whip into a stiff topping.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, which thickens when heated with the egg yolks.
Raspberries
Provide fruit flavour, tartness and moisture to soak into the cake layers.
Stale sponge cake
Forms the absorbent base layers that soak up custard and raspberry juices.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thickened. Egg yolks set when heated, but overheating can curdle them. Stir constantly and stop once the custard coats a spoon, so it thickens smoothly instead of turning grainy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, sugar. 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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