Name: Cherry Trifle
Ingredients: 2 cups cherries, pitted; 1 cup sugar; 1 cup water; 1 cup sherry; 1 inch thick slices of cake; whipped cream; small macaroons

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cherry Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the cherries

Stew the cherries in a syrup made of sugar and water.

Assemble the trifle

Layer slices of cake in a dish, spreading a layer of cherries on top.
Add sherry to the syrup and pour a little over the dish.
Place another layer of thinner cake on top, followed by more cherries and syrup.
Top with whipped cream and small macaroons, then serve.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Sherry + creamtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,038 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).
Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together4,141 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Cherries: Provide the fruit flavour and tartness, and soften as they stew in the syrup.
Sugar: Sweetens the syrup and balances the tart cherries.
Sherry: Adds aroma and a sharp, winey flavour to the soaked cake.
Cake: Soaks up the syrup and sherry, giving the trifle a moist, soft body.
Whipped cream: Adds fat and a light, creamy texture on top of the layers.

“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.