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Dessert

To Make a Trifle

A layered dessert of macaroons, custard, fruit, and optional pomfret.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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To Make a Trifle

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 ↓

To Make a Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Place macaroons in the bottom of a china dish.

  2. Pour white wine and brandy over the macaroons.

Make the custard

  1. In a saucepan, heat the cream.

  2. Beat the egg yolks with a little sugar.

  3. When the cream is hot, stir in the egg yolks without boiling.

  4. Sweeten to taste and let cool.

  5. Pour the custard over the macaroons.

Top and serve

  1. Rub a lump of sugar on the lemon rind and froth the milk and cream mixture.

  2. Drain the froth on a sieve and pile it on top of the trifle.

  3. Before serving, sprinkle with morsel pomfret if desired.

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.

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.

  1. White wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

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

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

  3. White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Macaroons
Form the soaked base layer that absorbs the wine, brandy and custard.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard as they set gently in the warm cream.
Cream
Gives the custard its rich body and smooth, fatty texture.
White wine
Moistens the macaroons and adds a light acidity to the base.
Brandy
Moistens the macaroons and adds aroma to the base.

The step that matters

Stir in the egg yolks without boiling. Egg yolks thicken when gently heated, but if the cream boils they can scramble into lumps and the custard will not be smooth.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, brandy, cream, egg, sugar, milk):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, brandy, cream, egg, sugar, milk. 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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