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Whipped Cream for a Trifle

A wine and brandy infused whipped cream for trifle.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Whipped Cream for a Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Flavour the wine

  1. In a clean enamelled saucepan, combine the cinnamon, lemon peel, mace, and white wine.

  2. Heat over low until it begins to boil, then strain the wine into a basin and let it cool.

Whip and serve

  1. Once nearly cold, add the remaining white wine, brandy, and the cream and milk mixture.

  2. Sweeten to taste with caster sugar and whisk well.

  3. As froth rises, skim it off and drain through a fine sieve.

  4. Serve the whipped cream.

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. Cinnamon + lemontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

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

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

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

  4. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cinnamon + milktop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together12,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: cuminaldehyde (Spicy, cumin).

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

What each ingredient does

Cream and milk
Provides the fat and body that set into a light, creamy foam when whisked.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavour, and its liquid carries the spices into the cream.
Brandy
Adds aroma and a warm, spirited flavour to the finished cream.
Caster sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps stabilise the whipped foam.

The step that matters

Skim and drain the froth. Skimming the froth as it rises and draining it through a fine sieve keeps the wine and spice liquid from weeping back into the cream, so the whipped cream stays light and holds its shape.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Clovefits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, lemon, white wine, brandy, cream, milk, 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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