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Dessert

Banana Trifle

A layered dessert of bananas, lemon jelly, apricot jam, sherry, gelatin, whipped cream, almonds, and ratafias.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Banana and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 124 recipes. Both carry 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate, which smells fruity. The science ↓

Banana Trifle

Ingredients

Directions

Make the banana layer

  1. Pass the bananas through a fine sieve.

  2. Add the apricot jam, cooled lemon jelly, and sherry to the bananas.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine in 1 tablespoon of water and mix it with the other ingredients.

  4. Add a few drops of carmine to brighten the color and pour into a deep dish.

Prepare the almonds and cream

  1. Blanch, shred, and bake the almonds until brown, then let them cool completely.

  2. When ready to serve, whip the cream until stiff and sweeten to taste with sugar.

Assemble and serve

  1. Pile the whipped cream lightly on top of the jellied mixture, sprinkle the almonds over the surface, and garnish the base with ratafias.

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. Banana + apricottop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-methyl-1-butanol acetate (fruity).

  2. Apricot + almondtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together852 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Apricot + sherrytop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together173 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Banana + sherrytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together117 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  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

Bananas
Provide the main flavor and a soft, pulpy body for the trifle.
Gelatine
Sets the banana mixture so it holds its shape when spooned.
Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it forms a light, rich topping that adds fat and softness.
Lemon jelly
Adds set structure and a bright, tart note to the banana layer.
Sherry
Adds aroma and depth of flavor to the banana mixture.
Apricot jam
Adds sweetness and fruity flavor to the banana mixture.

The step that matters

Whipping the cream until stiff. Cream whips best when cold and stops at stiff peaks; overwhipping turns it grainy and gently whipping keeps it light enough to sit on the jelly without sinking into it.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, banana, apricot, almond, sherry):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, banana, apricot, almond, sherry. 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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