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Dessert

A Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge biscuits, macaroons, wine‑soaked cakes, custard, whipped cream, and garnishes.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 20 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

A Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Build the base

  1. Layer the bottom of a trifle dish with sponge biscuits or slices of savoy cake.

  2. Add a layer of macaroons and ratafias on top of the cake.

  3. Pour 1 pint of Lisbon wine over the cakes and let the wine soak in for several hours.

  4. Spread a thin layer of raspberry jam over the soaked cakes.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, combine 1 pint of milk, ½ pint of cream, cinnamon, lemon peel, and sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, then remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Beat 6 egg yolks with ½ tablespoon of flour.

  4. Gradually add the cooled milk mixture, stirring well.

  5. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve back into a clean saucepan.

  6. Cook over low heat, stirring until it thickens, then remove from heat and let cool.

  7. Stir in 1 glass of brandy and a few spoonfuls of ratafia.

  8. Pour the custard over the cake layer.

  9. Top with apricot jam.

Finish and garnish

  1. Whip 1 pint of cream with 1 egg white and 2 ounces of sugar until frothy.

  2. Add 2 glasses of white wine and continue whipping.

  3. Spoon the whipped cream over the trifle.

  4. Sprinkle with harlequin seeds.

  5. Garnish with preserved orange or lemon peel.

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 + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  2. Biscuit + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together312 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  3. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

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

  5. Milk + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set when gently heated, giving it body and richness.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving the custard and topping a smooth, soft texture.
Egg white
Whipped into the cream to add air, lightening the topping and helping it hold its foam.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps stabilise the whipped cream.
Lisbon wine
Soaks into the cakes, moistening them and adding flavour to the base.

The step that matters

Cook the custard over low heat. Egg yolks thicken by gentle heat; too much heat scrambles them into lumps. Stirring constantly and cooking slowly keeps the custard smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, wine, raspberry, milk, cream, cinnamon, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, wine, raspberry, milk, cream, cinnamon, 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.

More trifle recipes

Apple 48Gooseberry 43Lemon 18Swiss Cream 17Brandy 13Grape 12 See all 115 →

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