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Dessert

An Excellent Trifle

A layered dessert of macaroons, ratafia drops, raisins, custard, jam, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and flour match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,075 recipes. Both carry isobutyraldehyde, which smells malty, green. The science ↓

An Excellent Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Assemble the base

  1. Layer macaroons and ratafia drops in a dish.

  2. Pour enough raisin wine over them to soak.

Add custard and jam

  1. Prepare a rich custard with more eggs and some rice flour, then pour it over the soaked macaroons.

  2. Add a layer of raspberry jam on top.

Top and finish

  1. Whip heavy cream with egg whites, sugar, and lemon peel until fluffy, then spread it over the trifle.

  2. Prepare the whipped cream a day in advance for best flavor.

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. Raisin + flourtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together9,075 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  3. Raisin + ricetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together565 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Raisin + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Wine + raspberrytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroons
Absorb the wine and form the soft, layered base of the dish.
Raisin wine
Soaks the macaroons, adding moisture and fruity flavor to the base.
Rich custard
Adds moisture and a creamy, set layer between the base and the jam.
Heavy cream
Whipped to form the light, fluffy topping that gives the trifle its airy texture.
Egg whites
Whipped with the cream to help it foam and hold a fluffy structure.
Rice flour
Thickens the custard so it sets into a smooth, stable layer.

The step that matters

Whipping the cream and egg whites. Whipping too little or too long can leave the topping either runny or grainy. Cold ingredients and steady whisking help the foam trap air and hold its shape.

Swap the raspberry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Coconutfits about as well
  4. Raspberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raisin, wine, rice, flour, cream, egg, 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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