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Dessert

A Trifle

A layered dessert of lemon, brandy, wine, cream, biscuits, jam, custard, almonds, and decorative toppings.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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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 ↓

A Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the cream

  1. Grate the rind of the lemon into a bowl.

  2. Add the lemon juice to the grated rind.

  3. Mix in ¼ pound of sugar, 2 tablespoons of brandy, and 2 tablespoons of Lisbon wine.

  4. Add 1½ pints of heavy cream.

  5. Whisk the mixture until frothy.

  6. Set the froth aside to drain for 3–4 hours in a cold place.

Assemble the trifle

  1. In a trifle dish, layer 6–8 sponge biscuits or 12 Naples biscuits.

  2. Add ¼ pound of ratafia drops or macaroons on top of the biscuits.

  3. Pour ½ pint of white wine over the biscuits.

  4. Pour 1 glass of brandy over the biscuits.

  5. Blanch the Jordan almonds.

  6. Split the blanched almonds.

  7. Place the split almonds on the soaked biscuits.

  8. Grate nutmeg over the top.

  9. Spread a thin layer of jam or jelly over the nutmeg.

  10. Pour 1 pint of rich thick custard over the jam layer.

  11. Cover the custard with the froth.

Decorate and serve

  1. Prepare the trifle a day in advance.

  2. Decorate with nonpareil comfits and edible flowers.

  3. Garnish just 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. Biscuit + almondtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together388 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + almondtop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,655 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

What each ingredient does

Heavy cream
Whipped into a froth that forms the light, airy topping over the custard.
Sponge biscuits
Absorb the wine and brandy, becoming soft and moist as the trifle rests.
Custard
Provides a rich, smooth, sweet layer that adds moisture and body to the trifle.
Ratafia drops or macaroons
Add almond-like flavour and a chewy, crumbly texture that soaks up the liquid.
Brandy
Adds a warm, aromatic flavour that carries through the soaked biscuits.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream mixture and balances the acidity of the lemon.

The step that matters

Draining the froth. Whisking the cream only until frothy and then letting it drain in the cold keeps the topping light and stable. Over-whisking can turn it grainy, and warmth makes it collapse, so the froth may thin into the custard.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, wine, cream, biscuit, white wine, almond. 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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