Name: Marshmallow Trifle
Ingredients: ½ pound marshmallows; ½ pint heavy cream; 2 tablespoons sherry; 2 or 3 strawberries or candied cherries

Why it works: Cream and sherry are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 19% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,038 recipes. Both carry 2-heptanol, which smells bitter, floral. The science ↓

Marshmallow Trifle

Ingredients

½ pound marshmallows
½ pint heavy cream
2 tablespoons sherry
2 or 3 strawberries or candied cherries

Directions

Cut the marshmallows into small pieces.
Mix the marshmallows with the stiffly beaten cream and sherry.
Serve in frappe glasses topped with strawberries or candied cherries.

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.

Cream + sherrytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,038 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Marshmallows: Melt slightly when mixed into cream, giving a soft, sweet, airy body to the trifle.
Heavy cream: Whipped into stiff foam that traps air, giving the trifle its light, fluffy texture.
Sherry: Adds a mild, aromatic flavor that balances the sweetness of the marshmallows.

The step that matters

Mix the marshmallows with the stiffly beaten cream and sherry.. Cream must be whipped to stiff peaks so it holds air. Overmixing can deflate it or make it grainy, so fold gently to keep the trifle light.

“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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Marshmallow Trifle