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Trifle, an Elegant
Make some whipped cream the day before the trifle is wanted, as no whip is solid unless it has stood for some hours. It should be made with a quart of thick cream, nearly all of the rind of two lemons, a glassful of sherry, and three table-spoonfuls of sugar. Whisk the mixture briskly, and as the froth forms lay it on an inverted sieve to drain. Put a quarter of a pound of ratafias, a quarter of a pound of macaroni, and three or four sponge biscuits at the bottom of a trifle-dish, and pour over them a pint of nicely-flavoured liquid calf's foot jelly, and set this in a cool place to stiffen. Dissolve a quarter of an ounce of isinglass in a little water, and put with it a pint of thick cream, the grated rind of half a lemon, and a heaped table-spoonful of sugar. When this is cool, pour it over the jelly, and as it begins to set ornament with bright-coloured jam and macaroni soaked in wine. Pile the whipped cream high on the top, and the trifle will be ready for serving. Probable cost, 7s., exclusive of the wine and brandy. Sufficient for one centre dish.
A late-Victorian layered trifle built on three separate settings: a jelly base, a cream blancmange, and a drained whip. The old method of skimming froth off cream and letting it drain overnight is the part most worth understanding before you start.
- The whip is the hingeVictorian cream was unhomogenised and whipped to a loose froth that was lifted off as it formed and drained on an inverted sieve, so the liquid ran away and the foam firmed up overnight. Modern pasteurised double or heavy cream whips to a stiff, stable foam in a couple of minutes and needs no draining; whisk it as long as the original directs and you risk overwhipping it.
- "Macaroni" means macaroons"Macaroni" almost certainly means macaroons -- Twice in this recipe the word appears to stand for macaroon, a small almond biscuit, rather than pasta; 'macaroni soaked in wine' as an ornament makes no sense otherwise. Ratafias are a smaller biscuit of the same family, flavoured with bitter almond or ratafia essence; amaretti are the closest thing on a modern shelf.
- Imperial measuresA quart of cream is 40 fl oz (about 1.1 litres), a pint 20 fl oz (about 570 ml). A "glassful" of sherry in this context is a wine glass, roughly 2 fl oz. A quarter of a pound is 4 oz, about 115 g.
- IsinglassA fish-derived setting agent, once sold in shreds and dissolved by soaking then heating. A quarter of an ounce is about 7 g and was reckoned enough for a pint of liquid; powdered gelatine is not interchangeable weight for weight with old isinglass, so use the quantity your gelatine's packet specifies for setting 1 pint of cream.
- Calf's foot jellyMade by long-boiling split calves' feet for their collagen, then clarifying with egg white and flavouring with wine, lemon and sugar. Almost nobody makes it now; a clear, firmly set wine or lemon jelly serves the same structural purpose under the biscuits.
- Sugar levelsThree tablespoons of sugar to a quart of cream, and one to a pint, is barely sweet by modern standards — the sweetness is meant to come from the jam, the ratafias and the jelly. Taste the cream mixtures before setting them rather than assuming.
- Assembly timingEach layer must be set before the next goes on, or they will marble together. The jelly base needs several hours in the fridge; the isinglass cream must be cool but still pourable when it goes over, and only just beginning to set when the jam and soaked macaroons are pressed in.
- Cost and yield"Probable cost, 7s." is a Victorian pricing note, not an instruction. "Sufficient for one centre dish" means a single large glass bowl for the middle of the table — realistically twelve or more servings, given a quart of cream in the whip alone.
Trifle began in the sixteenth century as something much plainer: thick cream boiled with sugar, ginger and rosewater, closer to what later cooks called a fool. The sponge, wine and custard version we recognise took shape in the eighteenth century, and by the time Cassell's Dictionary of Cookery was compiled in the 1870s the trifle had become a piece of table architecture — a tall glass dish set in the centre of the cloth, layered so the strata showed through the sides. That is why this version stacks a clear jelly, an opaque set cream and a snowy whip rather than simply pouring custard over sponge: the point is as much the elevation and the visible bands as the eating. The insistence on making the whip a day ahead reflects the handling of the unhomogenised cream of the period, which was generally drained of its liquid as the standard way of getting a whip to hold a peak.