... to think that trifle isn't trifle if there's no jelly in it?

[evalyn]

OP wants trifle made without jelly. I think trifle has to have jelly or it's not trifle. Which of us is BU?

Working class trifle lovers in this house:

Swiss roll
Jelly
Custard
Whipped cream
Sprinkles

Been known to posh it up do it properly, but kids (esp 20 yo DD) not keen so sticking with above for now ever

My mother always made a huge trifle for the family post Christmas party (on Twelfth Night). It was fabulous, and even nicer for breakfast next morning

No jelly of course! Home made sponge soaked in orange juice and brandy (I think) with loads of raspberries, home made custard and lots of whipped cream. Pretty similar to tiramisu, which I like to make for Christmas now.

My MIL made traditional birds type custard, with sponge fingers and tinned fruit in the jelly and then some sort of birds topping on top. I really don't like it that way, the stuff in the jelly was always a bit gritty. But dh likes it because it reminds him of his mum (long since dead) and his childhood. Mind he likes Angel Delight too, so I suspect has damaged tastebuds ;)

Agree with myfirstname
ALL trifle is vile!

Working class trifle lovers in this house

Swiss roll
Jelly
Custard
Whipped cream
Sprinkles

Exactly this. Although the Swiss roll can be replaced by sponge fingers for a bit of variety.

I am now dying for some sherry trifle made with jelly. I may have to make it for afters tomorrow

I consider jelly trifle a kids trifle. Grownups in our house (and the kids for that matter) prefer a soaked cake/sponge finger/madelines-at-a-push with lots of booze and fresh raspberries one.

Dad's family made working class trifle with jelly & fruit cocktail.

Mum's family made a middle class one with madeleines & raspberries & lots of booze.

BOTH of them were and still are fucking delicious.

I don't care what class my trifle is, or whether it has jelly or fresh fruit V tinned.
I just want to bloody eat it

I do draw the line at putting mince in it though.
NO MINCE.

Working class trifle lovers

In my LBMN (that's life before mumsnet) I would not have understood a phrase such as Working Class Trifle Lovers.

Now I TOTALLY get it.

Jelly in trifle???? That would have had you cast out into the snow in our family!

Your OP is entirely correct.

no jelly
never jelly
jelly is disgusting and has no place in a moral society

Trifle without jelly is just mush. Needs jelly to give it some firmness and it is best with swiss roll, although I do prefer it with fresh fruit (love raspberries) rather than tinned - yum!

SIL makes a bowl of vile mush with big cherries and amaretti biscuits in it, need to pretend to enjoy it every year...........

Yuk, yuk, yuk, I hate jelly (and love trifle).

The only reasonable solution is to make individual trifles, or two separate trifles, one horrible jelly one, one proper jelly-free one.

Trifle is devils food. It should be made illegal to produce and/or consume it.

You just have to accept that "trifle" is a word with two distinct meanings - like "bank" can mean both a ridge of earth covered in grass and an organisation which will take your money, make a huge profit at the expense of the tax payer and accept no responsibility when everything goes tits up.

"trifle" can be used both to describe
(a) the delicious but somewhat bland pudding my mum makes using trifle sponges halved and spread with strawberry jam, a tin of mandarin segments, and plenty of custard (and NO OTHER INGREDIENTS)
(b) the sickly combination of boudoir biscuits, sherry, tinned fruit cocktail, loads of jelly, a tiny layer of custard then whipped cream and chocolate sprinkles which DH unfortunately calls by a name which is spelled and pronounced the same but is in fact an ENTIRELY DIFFERENT WORD.

By agreeing that it's just a phenomenon in the English language, like so many other homonyms, we have managed to avoid divorce.

I'm Southern and a bit posh. I expect jelly in my trifle.

I'm sorry, Fish. There are many things in a relationship on which compromise is possible or desirable.

Trifle is not one of them!

Oh my word! This is one of the biggest disagreements we have in this house (thankfully)!

The thing with jelly in is just a fruit / cake / jelly / custard / cream pudding.

Trifle has NO JELLY!

Dh thinks I am wrong.

He is wrong!

All you trifle lovers can consider yourselves lucky that you don't have my DH to contend with. A man who hates custard with an entirely unreasonable passion. I rarely get to eat the sort of glorious home-made, extravagance that is trifle. And I love trifle.

Non-jelly and most definitely not Southern!!!

Unless you count the central lowlands as Southern Scotland?

I am ascending the social ladder and making trifle without jelly this year. However the trifle I've made in the past that has always gone down a storm has both jelly AND sliced bananas! It's one of Katharine Whitehorn's recipe, using fruit, sponge, maraschino cherries, alcohol and lemon meringue pie filling instead of custard. And cream of course. You can find it here

Sponge fingers in Marsala, with tinned raspberries, custard, whipped cream, flaked almonds. That's it!!

The Italians call trifle Zuppa Inglese, I found this out when i tried Zuppa Inglese flavoured ice-cream on holiday, was delicious.

My mother in law does trifle with jelly, my mother does a posh one without jelly but with raspberries and ratafia biscuits. DH likes both.

I'm northern and a really trifle (as previously stated) has NO JELLY!

Dh is from South Wales and is wrong.

Working class trifle is vile, but that'll be because all the components individually are vile.

Upper class trifle all the way for me!