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Dessert

Trifle

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Trifle

Why it works: Almond and pistachio match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 693 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the components

  1. Pour the syrup from the apricots into an enamelled pan.

  2. Add 1 tablespoon caster sugar, a pinch of powdered cinnamon, 2 tablespoons lemon juice, and ⅛ pint fruit syrup; boil and pour over the apricots, then let cool.

  3. For the custard, combine 1 pint milk, a strip of lemon rind, and 1 bay leaf in a pan; let infuse for 1 hour in a warm place.

  4. Add yolks of 3 eggs, 1 tablespoon caster sugar, 1 dessert spoon flour, and a tiny pinch of salt; stir over heat until thick and smooth, then add a little vanilla and let cool.

  5. Whip the double cream until stiff, then sprinkle with 1 tablespoon caster sugar and a little vanilla just before using.

Layer and finish

  1. In a dish, layer pieces of sponge cake, followed by ⅓ of the broken macaroons and ⅓ of the ratafias, moistening with apricot syrup.

  2. Add a layer of apricots and a sprinkling of almonds, then cover with custard in spoonfuls.

  3. Repeat the layering until all ingredients are used, forming a pyramid shape.

  4. Top with the whipped cream in rocky lumps and sprinkle with pistachio nuts.

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. Almond + pistachiotop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together693 recipes

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

  2. Almond + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,514 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Pistachio + nutstop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together425 recipes

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

  4. Pistachio + cinnamontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together201 recipes

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

  5. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Yolks thicken the custard as they set on gentle heat.
Double cream
Whipped into stiff peaks, it forms the light, airy topping.
Sponge cakes
Soak up the apricot syrup, giving the trifle its moist base layers.
Apricots
Add fruit flavour and a soft, juicy layer between the custard and sponge.
Flour
Helps thicken the custard so it holds its body in the layers.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, carrying the infused lemon and bay flavour.

The step that matters

Stirring the custard over heat. Egg yolks can scramble if overheated. Stirring gently over moderate heat and keeping the custard moving lets the flour and yolks thicken it smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, apricot, almond, pistachio, nuts, sugar, cinnamon):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, apricot, almond, pistachio, nuts, sugar, cinnamon. 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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