Why it works: White wine and brandy work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓
A Trifle
Ingredients
Directions
Make the cream
In a bowl, combine the cream and white wine, then sweeten with sugar and whisk until frothy.
Place a sieve over a deep dish and pour the frothy mixture into it to drain.
Assemble and serve
Dip the biscuits into sweet wine and a little brandy.
Layer the soaked biscuits in a serving dish and pour over the rich boiled custard.
Once cold, top with the whipped cream, piling it high.
Garnish with coloured comfits if desired.
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.
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White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together620 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,427 recipes
Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
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Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Tea + biscuittop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together107 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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White wine + winetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Rich cream
- Whipped into a light froth that forms the airy topping.
- Spunge biscuits
- Soak up the wine and brandy, becoming soft and absorbent in the layers.
- Rich boiled custard
- Adds richness and a smooth, creamy body between the soaked layers.
- Sweet wine
- Moistens and flavours the biscuits, adding sweetness and aroma.
- White wine
- Adds acidity and helps the cream whisk into a frothy foam.
The step that matters
Draining the frothy cream. Letting the whipped cream drain through a sieve removes excess liquid, so the topping holds its shape when piled high instead of weeping and making the dish watery.
“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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