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Dessert

Trifle

A layered dessert of custard, fruit preserves, sponge cakes, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 16 ingredients
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Trifle

Why it works: Vanilla and raspberry work together. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 950 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells fruity, sweet. The science ↓

Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Boil the vanilla in the vanilla cream until flavorful.

  2. Mix the isinglass with water and combine with the milk and fine cream.

  3. Sweeten with sugar and stir until nearly cold.

  4. Dip a mold in cold water and pour the mixture into it.

  5. Make the trifle a day in advance and set it in ice to firm up.

Assemble the trifle

  1. Cover the bottom of a dish with sponge cakes or biscuits and wet with sweet wine.

  2. Layer with raspberry jam and then with guava jelly.

  3. Pour over a rich custard and top with whipped cream.

Make the topping

  1. Mix sugar, lemon juice, grated peel, brandy, sweet wine, and cream in a bowl.

  2. Whisk until frothy, skim off the froth, and set aside to cover the trifle.

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. Vanilla + raspberrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

  2. Raspberry + guavatop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together23 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

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

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

  4. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  5. Vanilla + biscuittop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together422 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Sponge cakes or naples biscuits
Form the absorbent base that soaks up the wine.
Sweet white wine
Moistens the base cakes and adds gentle sweetness and flavor.
Raspberry jam
Adds fruit sweetness and acidity between the layers.
Fine cream
Adds richness and fat, giving the set mixture a smooth, creamy texture.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and richness of the cream.

The step that matters

Stir until nearly cold. Isinglass sets as it cools, so pouring the mixture while it is still warm or letting it cool too far before pouring affects how evenly the jelly sets and how smooth it turns out.

Swap the guava

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (vanilla, cream, sugar, biscuit, white wine, raspberry, lemon):

  1. Blackberryfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Guavathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against vanilla, cream, sugar, biscuit, white wine, raspberry, lemon. 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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