Editing Trifle

{{short description|Custard dessert}}
{{other uses}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=March 2020}}
{{Infobox food
| name             = Trifle
| image            = [[File:Trifle-w.jpg|250px]] [[File:Trifle-(cream-layer)-profile.jpg|250px]]
| country          = [[England]]
| course           = [[Dessert]]
| main_ingredient  = Variable: sponge biscuit ([[Ladyfinger (biscuit)|ladyfinger]]), [[sherry]], [[custard]], [[fruit]], whipped [[cream]]
}}

'''Trifle''' is a layered [[dessert]] of [[English cuisine|English]] origin. The usual ingredients are a thin layer of [[Ladyfinger (biscuit)|sponge finger]]s or [[sponge cake]] soaked in [[sherry]] or another [[fortified wine]], a [[fruit]] element (fresh or jelly), [[custard]] and whipped cream layered in that ascending order in a glass dish.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Davidson |first=Alan |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/890807357 |title=The Oxford companion to food |date=2014 |others=Tom Jaine, Soun Vannithone |isbn=978-0-19-967733-7 |edition=3rd |location=New York |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |oclc=890807357}}</ref> The contents of a trifle are highly variable and many varieties exist, some forgoing fruit entirely and instead using other ingredients, such as [[chocolate]], [[coffee]] or [[vanilla]]. The fruit and sponge layers may be suspended in fruit-flavoured [[Gelatin dessert|jelly]], and these ingredients are usually arranged to produce three or four layers. The assembled dessert can be topped with [[whipped cream]] or, more traditionally, [[syllabub]].

The name ''trifle'' was used for a dessert like a [[fruit fool]] in the sixteenth century; by the eighteenth century, [[Hannah Glasse]] records a recognisably modern trifle, with the inclusion of a [[gelatin]] jelly.

==History==
[[File:Puddingsbhm.jpg|thumb|left|Illustrations from [[Mrs Beeton|Isabella Beeton's]] ''[[Mrs Beeton's Book of Household Management|Book of Household Management]]'', 1861]]

Trifle appeared in cookery books in the sixteenth century.<ref name=":2">{{Cite book |author=Gray, Annie |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1129384439 |title=The official Downton Abbey cookbook |date=17 September 2019 |isbn=978-1-68188-369-4 |oclc=1129384439}}</ref> The earliest use of the name ''trifle'' was in a recipe for a thick cream flavoured with [[sugar]], ginger and rosewater, in [[Thomas Dawson (cook)|Thomas Dawson]]'s 1585 [[English cuisine|book of English cookery]] ''[[The Good Huswifes Jewell]]''.<ref>{{cite book |publisher=[[WorldCat]] |title=The Good Husvvifes Ievvell |oclc = 606520795}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Norwak |first=Mary |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/41899922 |title=English puddings : sweet and savoury |date=1996 |publisher=Grub Street |isbn=1-898697-44-2 |location=London |oclc=41899922}}</ref> This flavoured thick cream was cooked 'gently like a custard, and was grand enough to be presented in a silver bowl.<ref name=":1" /> These earlier trifles, it is claimed, 'derived from the flavoured almond milk of medieval times'.<ref name=":1" /> Early trifles were, according to food historian Annie Gray, 'more like fools (puréed fruit mixed with sweetened cream)'.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |author1=Gray, Annie |author2=Hann, Andrew |url=http://worldcat.org/oclc/1140134760 |title=How to cook the Victorian way with Mrs Crocombe |year=2020 |isbn=978-1-910907-42-9 |oclc=1140134760}}</ref> Trifle evolved from these [[Fruit fool|fools]], and originally the two names were used interchangeably.<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART_II/British_Food/British_desserts.html|title= Three British Desserts: Syllabub, Fool and Trifle|access-date= 2010-07-19|work= Article by Diana Serbe|url-status= dead|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20100513221231/http://www.inmamaskitchen.com/FOOD_IS_ART_II/British_Food/British_desserts.html|archive-date= 13 May 2010}}</ref>

It was not until the 1750s that trifles took the form that many know of today.<ref name=":2" /> Two recipes for what now is considered a trifle first appeared in the mid-18th century in England. Both recipes described [[biscuit]]s soaked in wine layered with [[custard]] and covered in a whipped [[syllabub]] froth. One was in the 4th edition of [[Hannah Glasse|Hannah Glasse's]] ''[[The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy]]'' (1751) and the other was by an unknown author entitled ''The Whole Duty of a Woman'' (1751).<ref name=":0" />

[[Gelatin dessert|Jelly]] is first recorded as part of a trifle recipe in [[Hannah Glasse|Hannah Glasse's]] 'A grand trifle'  in her book [[The Compleat Confectioner]] (1760). Her recipe instructs the reader to use [[calf (animal)|calves]]' feet to make a rich calves-foot jelly, and to half fill the dish with this jelly. Biscuits and macaroons are broken into pieces and stuck into the jelly before it sets, 'thick sweet cream' is poured over the jelly and biscuits and the whole is decorated with pieces of calves-foot jelly, raspberry jam and currant jelly cut into pieces, and more macaroons finish the dish.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Saberi |first=Helen |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/320801101 |title=Trifle |date=2009 |publisher=Prospect |others=Alan Davidson |isbn=978-1-903018-72-9 |location=Totnes |oclc=320801101}}</ref>

The Dean's Cream from [[Cambridge|Cambridge, England]] was made about the same time as Hannah Glasse's version and was composed of sponge cakes, spread with jam, macaroons and [[ratafias]] soaked in sherry, and covered with [[syllabub]]. Trifle-like desserts of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries include King's Pudding, Easter Pudding, Victoria Pudding or Colchester pudding.<ref name=":1" />

In 1855 [[Eliza Acton]] described The Duke's Custard, a mixture of sugared, brandied Morella cherries, covered in custard, edged with Naples biscuits (sponge fingers) or [[macaroon]]s, which was then finished with solid whipped cream coloured pink with [[cochineal]] and 'highly flavoured' with brandy.<ref name=":1" /><ref>{{Cite web |last=Acton |first=Eliza |date=1853 |title=Modern Cookery, in all its branches; reduced to a system of easy practice, for the use of private families...Thirteenth edition, etc |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-lBtAEACAAJ |access-date=20 July 2022 |website=Google Books}}</ref>

[[File:Trifle 4layer.jpg|thumb|Layers of a trifle dessert]]
The English cookery writer [[Jane Grigson]] has a trifle in her book on English Food (first published in 1974) and she describes her version, which includes macaroons, [[Frontignan (grape)|Frontignan]] wine, [[brandy]], eggs, raspberry jam and everlasting [[syllabub]], as "a pudding worth eating, not the mean travesty made with yellow, packaged sponge cakes, poor sherry and powdered custard".<ref>{{Cite book |last=Grigson |first=Jane |title=English food |date=c. 1998 |others=Sophie Grigson |isbn=0-14-027324-7 |edition=Revised edition [paperback] |location=London, England |oclc=60182498}}</ref>

The late 19th century was, according to the food historian Annie Gray, "a sort of heyday" for trifles<ref name=":3" /> and by the early 1900s there were, in print, says Gray, "a bewildering number of recipes". There were thirteen in ''The Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery: A Complete Dictionary of All Pertaining to the Art of Cookery and Table Service''<ref name="TFG/cdacts">{{cite book |last1=Garrett |first1=Theodore Francis |title=The Encyclopaedia of Practical Cookery: A Complete Dictionary of All Pertaining to the Art of Cookery and Table Service, 8 volumes; |date=1891 |publisher=L. U. Gill |location=London |url=https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp68698 |access-date=18 August 2024 |via=[[The Online Books Page]]}}<!-- https://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupid?key=olbp68698  https://www.google.com/search?q=The+Encyclopaedia+of+Practical+Cookery+Theodore+Francis+Garrett&sca_upv=1&hl=en&tbm=bks&gbv=1  https://archive.org/search?query=The+Encyclopaedia+of+Practical+Cookery+Theodore+Francis+Garrett   --></ref> (8 volumes, 1891), from Theodore Francis Garrett, alone.<ref name=":2" /> That book is unusual, suggests Gray, in including two savoury versions, one with [[veal]] and one with [[lobster]].<ref name=":2" />

In 2022, a trifle was selected to be the [[Platinum Pudding]], to help celebrate the [[Platinum Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Furness |first=Hannah |date=2022-05-12 |title=Recipe inspired by Queen's wedding dessert wins Platinum Pudding contest |language=en-GB |newspaper=[[The Daily Telegraph|The Telegraph]] |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/royal-family/2022/05/12/recipe-inspired-queens-wedding-dessert-wins-platinum-pudding/ |access-date=2022-06-09 |issn=0307-1235}}</ref>  A lemon Swiss roll and amaretti trifle, created by Jemma Melvin from [[Southport]], [[Merseyside]], in the United Kingdom won a competition run by [[Fortnum & Mason]] "to create a pudding fit for the Queen".<ref>{{Cite web |title=The Platinum Pudding Competition {{!}} The Winning Recipe |url=https://www.fortnumandmason.com/platinum-pudding-winner |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=www.fortnumandmason.com |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=The Platinum Pudding Competition {{!}} A Recipe Fit for The Queen |url=https://www.fortnumandmason.com/platinum-pudding |access-date=2022-06-09 |website=www.fortnumandmason.com |language=en}}</ref>

Coronation Trifle was created by [[Adam Handling]] for the [[Coronation of Charles III and Camilla|Coronation of King Charles III]] in 2023. It is made with [[Parkin (cake)|parkin]], ginger custard and strawberry jelly.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Adam Handling's Coronation strawberry and ginger trifle |url=https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20230430-adam-handlings-coronation-strawberry-and-ginger-trifle |access-date=2024-01-25 |website=www.bbc.com}}</ref>

==Variations==
Trifles may contain different sorts of alcohol such as [[port wine|port]], [[punsch]], [[raisin wine]] or [[Curaçao (liqueur)|curaçao]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Marmalade trifle |website=British Food in America |url=https://www.britishfoodinamerica.com/Our-Recipes/Desserts/Marmalade-trifle/}}</ref>

==Similar desserts==
The [[Scottish people|Scots]] have a similar dish to the trifle, '''tipsy laird''', made with [[Drambuie]] or [[whisky]].<ref name="Broon">Maw Broon (2007). ''Maw Broon's Cookbook''. Waverley Books; (18 October 2007) {{ISBN|1-902407-45-8}}, p. 111</ref>

In Italy, a dessert similar to and probably based on trifle is known as ''[[zuppa inglese]]'', literally "English soup".<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Zuppa inglese |encyclopedia=Larousse Gastronomique |location=New York |publisher=Clarkson Potter |date=2001 |page=1310}}</ref> [[Tiramisù]] is prepared similarly to trifle, but it does not include fruits and the original recipe calls for the savoiardi (ladyfingers) to be dipped in coffee rather than spirits.

==See also==
{{portal|Food}}
* {{annotated link|Cassata}}
* {{annotated link|Crema de fruta}}
* {{annotated link|Pavê}} - Brazilian dessert
* {{annotated link|Icebox cake}} - American dessert
* [[List of custard desserts]]
* {{annotated link|Parfait}}
* {{annotated link|Pudding}}
* {{annotated link|Zuppa inglese}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{English cuisine}}

[[Category:Australian desserts]]
[[Category:British desserts]]
[[Category:Christmas food]]
[[Category:Custard desserts]]
[[Category:Foods with alcoholic drinks]]
[[Category:New Zealand desserts]]
[[Category:Sponge cakes]]
[[Category:English desserts]]
[[Category:British puddings]]
[[Category:South African cuisine]]