Trifle is a cold layered dessert built in a large glass bowl so the strata are visible from the side. It is a fixture of British Christmases, birthdays and buffets, and it is the cause of one of the country’s more enjoyable food disputes.
The layers
From the bottom:
- Sponge — trifle sponges, sponge fingers or leftover Victoria sponge, sometimes spread with jam.
- Sherry — poured over the sponge until soaked. Sweet sherry is traditional; Madeira or brandy also appear.
- Fruit — raspberries, strawberries, or tinned peaches and pears.
- Jelly — contested. See below.
- Custard — thick, cooled, and set enough to hold the cream above it.
- Whipped cream — a deep layer on top.
- Decoration — flaked almonds, hundreds and thousands, or glacé cherries.
The jelly question
This is a real argument and it is taken seriously.
The traditional position: a proper trifle contains no jelly at all. Historic recipes — the dish is recorded from 1596 and in something like its modern form by the eighteenth century — are sponge, wine, custard and cream, with no gelatine anywhere. Purists regard jelly as a twentieth-century convenience-food intrusion.
The jelly position: jelly is what makes it a trifle rather than a bowl of custard, it sets the fruit attractively, and it is what almost everyone under seventy grew up with.
The split runs broadly north-south, with jelly commoner in the North, but it is at least as much a family tradition as a regional one. Serving the wrong version to in-laws is a recognised hazard.
The sherry
Trifle is properly alcoholic, and the sherry is not a garnish — the sponge should be thoroughly soaked. A children’s version substitutes fruit juice, and the distinction between the two bowls at a family gathering is usually marked by a spoon stuck in one of them and a warning.
The regional cousins
- Tipsy cake and tipsy laird — the Scottish version, made with Drambuie and raspberries.
- Sherry trifle — the standard adult form.
- Black Forest trifle, lemon trifle, Christmas trifle with mincemeat — endless variations, all accepted.
Rachel’s trifle
Worth mentioning because it is how a great many Americans first encountered the dish. In an episode of Friends, Rachel makes a trifle following a recipe whose pages have stuck together, and produces a layered dessert containing beef sautéed with peas and onions. It is a joke about a food most American viewers had never seen, and it is now firmly attached to the word.
The joke works precisely because a real trifle is already an improbable stack of unrelated things that happens to be delicious.