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Dessert

Swiss Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge buns, raspberry jam, sherry, milk custard, and toasted almonds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 552 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Swiss Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Slice the sponge buns.

  2. Lay the sliced buns in a glass dish.

  3. Pour the sherry over the buns.

  4. Cover the buns with raspberry jam.

Make the custard

  1. Mix the cornflour smoothly with cold milk.

  2. Boil the remaining milk with the lemon rind and sugar.

  3. Pour the hot milk mixture onto the cornflour.

  4. Return the mixture to the pan.

  5. Stir until thickened.

  6. Beat the egg and egg yolk.

  7. Stir the thickened milk into the eggs.

  8. Let the custard cool.

Assemble and decorate

  1. Pour the cooled custard over the trifle.

  2. Blanch the almonds.

  3. Cut the blanched almonds into thin strips.

  4. Arrange the almond strips on top.

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. Raspberry + almondtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together552 recipes

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

  2. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

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

  3. Almond + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Raspberry + sherrytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together109 recipes

    Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).

  5. Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together517 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge buns
Form the soaked base layer that holds the sherry and jam.
Sherry or raisin wine
Soaks into the buns, adding moisture and a fruity, aromatic flavour.
Raspberry jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavour, and moistens the layer beneath the custard.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard that thickens when heated.
Egg
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a rich, smooth set.
Cornflour
Thickens the milk through starch gelatinisation, giving the custard body.

The step that matters

Stir the thickened milk into the eggs. Adding hot milk to beaten eggs too quickly, or heating them too hard, can scramble the eggs. Pour gradually while whisking, then cook gently so the custard thickens smoothly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, sherry, almond, milk, egg, sugar):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, sherry, almond, milk, 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.

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