Why it works: Biscuit and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 388 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓
Trifle
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the custard
Make the custard as directed and let it cool.
Assemble and soak
Spread jam on half the biscuits, cover with the others, and arrange them with the ratafias compactly in a glass dish.
Mix the sherry and milk together, pour it over the biscuits, and stick in the shreds of almonds.
Let it soak for 1 hour.
Finish and serve
Pour the custard over the soaked biscuits, pile the stiffly whisked sweetened whites of eggs on top, and 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.
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.
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Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together388 recipes
Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).
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Raspberry + almondtop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together552 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Raspberry + sherrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together109 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Sherry + almondtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together517 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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Raspberry + milktop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,014 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
- Savoy biscuits
- Form the soft, absorbent base layer that soaks up the sherry and milk.
- Raspberry jam
- Adds fruit sweetness and flavour between the biscuit layers.
- Sherry
- Adds aroma and flavour and helps moisten the biscuits as they soak.
- Boiled custard
- Forms the creamy layer that softens the soaked biscuits and adds richness.
- Whites of eggs
- Whisked to a stiff foam, they form a light, airy topping that holds its shape.
The step that matters
Pile the whisked egg whites on top. Whites must be whisked stiff and sweetened so they hold a peak; under-whipped or deflated foam will slump into the custard instead of standing up as a light topping.
Swap the raspberry
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (biscuit, sherry, milk, almond, egg, sugar):
- Vanillafits better
- Figfits better
- Raisinfits better
- Raspberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against biscuit, sherry, milk, almond, 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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