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Swiss Trifle
Crumble a quarter of a pound of macaroons, and a quarter of a pound of ratafias, and put them into a glass dish. Pour a glassful of brandy upon them, and let them soak for a while. Sweeten a pint of cream, and flavour with lemon-rind or any suitable flavouring. Put it into a saucepan, and stir into it a table-spoonful of ground rice which has been mixed to a smooth paste with a little cold milk. Let it boil gently till it begins to thicken, and stir it all the time. Pour it out, and when it is almost cold add the strained juice of two lemons. Pour the mixture upon the cakes. Stick blanched almonds into it, and let it stand an hour or two before it is used. Time, a quarter of an hour to boil the milk with the rice. Probable cost, exclusive of the brandy, 2s. 4d. Sufficient for four or five persons.
A no-egg trifle thickened with rice flour rather than custard, assembled cold and left to set. Two things decide whether it works: the temperature at which the lemon juice goes in, and giving it the full standing time.
- Add the lemon juice coolThis is the hinge. Sweetened cream acidified while hot will split; the recipe deliberately says "almost cold." Let the thickened cream drop to barely warm, then stir in the strained juice in a thin stream.
- Ratafias and macaroonsRatafias are small, hard, almond-flavoured biscuits, close to Italian amaretti; macaroons here means the chewy almond-and-egg-white sort, not the modern coconut macaroon or a French macaron. Amaretti for both is a fair substitute, 4 oz (115 g) of each.
- "A glassful of brandy"Genuinely vague. Victorian books usually mean a wineglass, which in period tables runs about 2 fl oz, though some writers use it for a quarter-pint. Start with 2 fl oz over 8 oz of dry biscuit and add more only if the crumbs are still powdery.
- Imperial pintA pint of cream in this book is 20 fl oz (about 570 ml), not the American 16. Single or whipping cream both work; the rice flour, not the fat, does the thickening.
- Ground riceRice milled to a fine meal, a little coarser than modern rice flour, which is the nearest substitute. One tablespoon to a pint gives a pouring consistency, not a mould; "a quarter of an hour to boil" means a gentle simmer with constant stirring so it does not catch or go grainy.
- Lemon rindPare it in wide strips with no pith, infuse it in the cream as it heats, and lift it out before pouring. Grated zest left in gives a slightly rough texture against the smooth cream.
- Standing time and yieldThe hour or two is not optional; the biscuits must soften into a layer rather than stay as loose crumbs. Serves four or five as written; "2s. 4d." is the book's own estimated cost, and the recipe notes it excludes the brandy.
Trifle in the English sense had settled by the 18th century into layers of soaked cake or biscuit under something creamy, and Victorian cookery books carry many regional and fanciful variants -- "Swiss," "Italian," "Tipsy" -- that differ mainly in the biscuit, the spirit and the thickener. The "Swiss" label here appears decorative rather than geographical; nothing in the method points to Switzerland. What is more telling is the thickening: instead of an egg custard, this recipe uses ground rice, one of the cheap starches (with cornflour and arrowroot) that became widely available in British kitchens in the second half of the century and let a cook produce a set cream without risking a curdled custard or paying for eggs. Ratafia biscuits are generally held to take their name from ratafia, the almond- or fruit-kernel flavoured cordial, and were a common trifle biscuit of the period.