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Royal Trifle

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Pistachio and biscuit share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53 recipes. Both carry nonanal, which smells fat, citrus. The science ↓

Royal Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Layer the ratafias at the bottom of a deep glass dish and sprinkle with brandy.

  2. Spread the jam over the ratafias, then add a layer of Savoy biscuits sprinkled with sherry.

  3. Boil the milk, then add it to the beaten egg and return to the pan, stirring in a pan of boiling water until thickened.

  4. Sweeten the mixture and add a few drops of vanilla, then pour it over the biscuits.

  5. In a bowl, combine the cream, 2 pints of cold water, sugar, and lemon juice. Whisk until frothy.

  6. Skim the froth off and drain it on a sieve. Continue to whip and skim until no more froth rises.

  7. Pile the froth high on top of the biscuits and decorate with meringues and candied fruit 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. Pistachio + biscuittop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together53 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  2. Lemon + angelicatop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together189 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Pistachio + angelicatop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  4. Angelica + biscuittop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together69 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Lemon + pistachiotop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, milk, cream, pistachio, angelica, biscuit, sherry):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Figfits about as well
  4. Apricotfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, milk, cream, pistachio, angelica, biscuit, sherry. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

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