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Dessert

An Easy Trifle

A layered dessert of sponge cakes, macaroons, custard, and whipped egg whites, flavored with brandy, wine, and optional jam.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and white wine work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 620 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

An Easy Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Soak the sponge cakes and macaroons in brandy and white wine.

  2. Layer them at the bottom of a trifle dish.

Make the custard

  1. Mix milk, cream, and eggs.

  2. Cook the mixture until thick.

  3. If desired, spread jam and sweetmeats over the cakes before adding custard.

  4. Pour the custard over the soaked cakes.

Top and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites with sugar and white wine until frothy.

  2. Heap the froth over the trifle lightly.

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. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  3. Brandy + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,738 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  4. Brandy + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. White wine + creamtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,760 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-decalactone (peach, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Sponge cakes
Soak up the brandy and wine, forming the soft absorbent base of the dish.
Macaroons
Absorb the liquor and add a chewy, almond-flavoured layer that softens as it soaks.
Eggs
Thicken the milk and cream into a set custard when gently cooked.
Egg whites
Whip into a light foam that gives the topping its airy, frothy texture.
Cream
Adds richness and a smooth, velvety texture to the custard.
Brandy
Flavours the soaked layers and adds aroma to the dish.

The step that matters

Cook the custard until thick. Eggs thicken when heated gently, but too much heat can curdle them into a grainy texture. Stir steadily and stop once the custard coats the back of a spoon.

“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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