Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
To Make a Trifle
Ingredients
Directions
Break sponge cakes into pieces and place them in a large glass dish.
Add broken almond cakes, a few ratafias, dried cherries, and pieces of raspberry or strawberry jam.
Layer with custard and repeat until the dish is full.
Mix 1 pint of sherry with ⅔ cup of brandy and pour over each layer.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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.
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Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,209 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Almond + raspberrytop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together552 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Raspberry + strawberry jamtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together80 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Raspberry + sherrytop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together109 recipes
Shared aroma: damascenone (apple, rose).
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Almond + sherrytop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together517 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Sponge cakes
- Forms the base layers that soak up the sherry and brandy mixture.
- Custard
- Adds creamy moisture and richness between the cake layers.
- Sherry
- Moistens the cakes and adds a sweet, wine-based aroma.
- Brandy
- Adds alcohol-based aroma that complements the fruit and jam.
- Raspberry jam
- Adds sweetness and fruity flavour in pockets throughout the layers.
The step that matters
Soaking each layer with the sherry and brandy. The cakes must absorb the liquid evenly; pouring too much at once leaves the bottom soggy and dilutes the custard layers, while too little leaves dry, chalky sponge.
Swap the strawberry jam
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (almond, raspberry, sherry, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Peachfits better
- Strawberry jamthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against almond, raspberry, sherry, brandy. 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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