Why it works: Sugar and cream 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 ↓
Cherry Trifle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
Stew the cherries in a syrup made of sugar and water.
Assemble the trifle
Place thick slices of cake in the bottom of a glass dish.
Spread a layer of cherries on top of the cake.
Add sherry to the syrup and pour a little over the contents of the dish.
Place another layer of thinner cake on top.
Add more cherries and syrup.
Top with whipped cream and small macaroons, then serve.
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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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,038 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
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Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,141 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavor and a moist, tart layer that softens the cake.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and helps draw flavor from the cherries as they stew.
- Cake
- Forms the absorbent base that soaks up the syrup and sherry.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and depth to the syrup that soaks into the cake.
- Whipped cream
- Adds richness and a light, airy topping that contrasts with the fruit.
The step that matters
Pour the sherry syrup over the cake. Cake is porous and absorbs liquid quickly, so pouring a little at a time keeps the layers moist without turning them soggy and collapsing the structure.
“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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