[Sca-cooks] Dessert board

[Phil Troy / G. Tacitus Adamantius]

On Jul 30, 2006, at 4:19 AM, Michael Gunter wrote:

>
>> <<< What about some sort of fruit-based trifle? That might be cool  
>> and
>> refreshing, and not require massive amounts of cooking. >>>
>>
>> Huh? Do you mean "trifle" or "truffle"? Presumably if the latter, the
>> chocolate covered goodie, not the mushroom.
>
> No. A trifle is a layered dessert, primarily English in design, of  
> various
> items. Often something like buttered bread or sponge, jam and whipped
> cream or similar. Rather like a more substantial parfait only bigger.

I believe what makes a trifle a trifle is the layer of stirred  
custard. A modern trifle is as you describe, something like buttered  
toasts or sponge-cake slices, usually with a layer of jam or fruit  
puree, all sort of steeped in creme anglaise/custard sauce. Whipped  
cream and more fruit usually go on top of that.

But the dish goes way back (seventeenth century at least), and  
although it takes different forms, the immutable seems to be the  
custard: early recipe titles are for "a cream called a trifle", and  
are basically creme anglaise. The variations you see are basically  
variants in presentation, not really in the basic recipe.

Adamantius