Name: An Excellent Trifle
Ingredients: ½ cup wine; ½ cup brandy; ⅔ cup good sherry or Madeira; ⅓ cup spirit; 3 sponge biscuits; ½ pound macaroons; ½ pound ratifias; 1 pint rich boiled custard (made with 6 eggs and ¾ pint milk and cream); ½ pint thin cream (or cream and milk mixed); 2 teaspoons sugar

Why it works: Brandy and spirit work together. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 209 recipes. Both carry ethyl benzoate, which smells sweet. The science ↓

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.

Brandy + spirittop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (sweet).
Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,209 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Wine + spirittop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together701 recipes

Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).
Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together2,427 recipes

Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).
Sherry + milktop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,479 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3,5-trimethylpyrazine (cocoa, roasted).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge biscuits: Absorb the wine and brandy, forming the soft, moist base layer.
Macaroons: Soak up the spirit mixture, adding moisture and a chewy almond-like texture.
Rich boiled custard: Adds richness and creamy moisture between the soaked cake layers.
Cream: Whipped to a light froth, it adds a airy, fat-rich topping.
Sherry or madeira: Adds depth and a mildly sweet, fortified-wine flavour to the dish.

The step that matters

Soaking the cakes. Dry or under-soaked cakes stay firm and tasteless, while over-soaked cakes turn mushy and collapse into the custard. Soaking should be thorough but brief enough for the biscuits to hold their shape.

“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.

An Excellent Trifle