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Dessert

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

A layered dessert of cream, lemon, macaroons, and candied citron.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon 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 ↓

Swiss Cream, or Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cream

  1. Combine cream, lemon rind, and bruised cinnamon in a saucepan.

  2. Heat over a clear fire until boiling.

  3. Mix 4 teaspoons of flour with a small amount of cream to form a thin batter.

  4. Stir the batter into the boiling cream.

  5. Simmer for 4-5 minutes, stirring gently until thickened.

  6. Remove from heat and let cool completely.

  7. Gradually mix in the strained juice of 2 lemons.

Assemble and chill

  1. In a glass dish, layer some macaroons, followed by a portion of the cream mixture.

  2. Repeat the layers, finishing with cream on top.

  3. Garnish with thinly sliced candied citron.

  4. Refrigerate overnight before serving.

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. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  2. Flour + cinnamontop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together17,341 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

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

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

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Rich cream
Provides the fat and body that make the custard rich and smooth.
All-purpose flour
Thickens the cream as it heats, giving the custard a set, spoonable texture.
Refined sugar
Sweetens the custard and balances the tartness of the lemon juice.
Fresh lemons
Add acidity and bright lemon flavor to the cream.
Macaroons
Soak up the cream as they sit, softening into the layers.

The step that matters

Stirring the batter into the boiling cream. Flour thickens only when it is well dispersed; adding it as a thin batter and stirring gently keeps it from clumping, so the custard turns smooth rather than lumpy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, flour, sugar, cinnamon):

  1. Raisinfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Blueberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, flour, sugar, cinnamon. 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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