Rachel's Trifle

Submission 9,095

Part of a series on Friends. [View Related Entries]

About

Rachel's Trifle refers to a series of videos, pictures and social media posts about fans of the television series Friends attempting to make the character Rachel Green's infamous English Trifle, a recipe that combines the ingredients of a desert trifle and a savory shepherd's pie.

Origin

On November 25th, 1999, episode nine of the sixth season of Friends, "The One Where Ross Got High," aired on NBC.^[13] The episode features the cast preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday. The character Rachel (Jennifer Aniston) attempts to make her English Trifle, only to realize that half of the recipe she followed was for shepherd's pie because the cookbook's pages were glued together.

Spread

The episode "The One Where Ross Got High" received more than 19.2 million viewer upon its premiere.

16 years later, on November 17th, 2017, the website Spoon University^[2] published an article entitled "What Happened When I Made Rachel’s Meat Trifle From Friends." The article posts a recipe for the Trifle. The author said, "I felt like I was eating dog food."

The following year, on November 22nd, 2016, BuzzFeed ^[3] and People published articles about attempting to make the trifle. People published a video of the experiment, whcih received more than 76,000 views on Facebook. ^[5]

On Twitter and Instagram, people have been making and trying Rachel's trifle since 2013. On April 6h, 2013, Instagram^[6] sarahkafer posted a picture of the trifle with the caption "I made Rachel's trifle! Lady fingers, jam, custard, raspberries, more ladyfingers, beef sautéed with peas and onions (chocolate pudding with Oreos) more custard, bananas and whip cream! #friends #trifles #imadefood!!"

The following month, on May 8th, 2013, Twitter^[6] user annapickles299 tweeted a picture with the caption "FriendsTV I made Rachel's trifle…. It did not taste good." The post (shown below, center) received more than 60 likes.

On December 16th, 2016, Twitter^[7] user @itscheezy tweeted a picture of a homemade trifle with the caption "Welps! I tried. Rachel Green's trifle was, in my opinion, a success!" The post (shown below, right) received more than 40 retweets and 200 likes.

The following year, YouTuber ^[7] Binging With Babish published a video of how to make the trifle. The video (shown below) received more than one million views in 24 hours.

Several media outlets published articles about the Binging With Babish video, including UPROXX,^[8] Eater,^[9] Insider^[10] and more. On November 21st, Twitter^[11] published a Moments page about the conversation around Rachel's Trifle.