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Dessert

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

A layered dessert of lemon‑flavored cream, macaroons, and candied citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Flavor the cream with lemon rind and cinnamon.

  2. Take ½ cup of cream and mix it smoothly with the flour.

  3. In a clean saucepan, heat the remaining cream over medium heat until it boils.

  4. Stir in the flour mixture and simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring gently.

  5. Remove from heat and let it cool completely.

  6. Once cool, mix in the strained juice of the lemons gradually.

Layer and serve

  1. In a glass dish, layer some macaroons at the bottom.

  2. Pour part of the cream mixture into the dish.

  3. Add more macaroons.

  4. Top with the remaining cream.

  5. Garnish with sliced candied citron.

  6. Prepare this dish a day in advance for best results.

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

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

  2. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  3. Flour + lemontop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  5. Cream + flourtop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together30,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetaldehyde (pungent, ethereal).

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

Rich cream
Forms the body of the custard and gives it a rich, smooth texture.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cream as it simmers, giving it a set, pudding-like body.
Refined sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
Lemons
Provide acidity and bright lemon flavor through juice and rind.
Macaroons
Add crisp, almond-sweet texture that softens as it soaks in the cream.

The step that matters

Cool the cream completely before adding the lemon juice. Acid added to hot, thickened cream can cause it to curdle or thin out. Cooling first lets the flour-thickened base stay smooth when the lemon juice is mixed in.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, 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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