Skip to main content
Dessert

A Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge biscuits, custard, fruit jam, and frothy cream, finished with nuts and garnish.

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

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

Make the froth

  1. Grate the rind of a lemon into a bowl with ¼ pound of sugar.

  2. Add the juice of the lemon, 2 tablespoons of brandy, and 2 tablespoons of Lisbon wine. Mix well.

  3. Stir in 1½ pints of good cream.

  4. Whisk until frothy.

  5. Strain the froth through a sieve.

  6. Continue whisking until you have enough to cover the trifle dish.

  7. Set the froth in a cold place to drain for 3-4 hours.

Assemble the trifle

  1. In a trifle dish, layer 6-8 sponge biscuits or 12 Naples biscuits and ¼ pound of ratafia drops or macaroons.

  2. Pour ½ pint of white wine and 1 glass of brandy over the biscuits.

  3. Blanch and split 2 ounces of Jordan almonds. Stick them into the soaked biscuits.

  4. Grate nutmeg over the top.

  5. Spread a thin layer of jam or jelly.

  6. Pour 1 pint of rich thick custard over the jam.

  7. Cover with the froth.

Serve

  1. Prepare the trifle a day in advance.

  2. Garnish with nonpareil comfits and edible flowers. Do not garnish until 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

Cream
Whisked into a light froth that forms the trifle's topping and sets as it drains.
Sponge biscuits
Absorb the wine and brandy, becoming soft and flavourful as the trifle rests.
Ratafia drops or macaroons
Add almond-like flavour and a chewy texture that softens when soaked.
White wine and brandy
Soak the biscuits, moistening them and adding aromatic alcohol flavour.
Sugar
Sweetens the lemon and brandy mixture and the cream topping.
Lemon juice and rind
Add acidity and bright citrus aroma that balance the sweetness of the cream.

The step that matters

Draining the froth. Straining and draining the whisked cream lets excess liquid run off, so the froth stays stable and holds its shape on top of the custard instead of weeping into it.

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 →

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesStrawberry Ice CreamStrawberry Ice Cream122 recipesBaking Powder BiscuitBaking Powder Biscuit119 recipes