Why it works: Lemon and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of cold water and let it stand for 10 minutes.
Add 1 pint of boiling water, stirring until fully dissolved.
Make the jelly
Mix in 1 pint of Sicily Madeira wine, the juice and peel of 1 lemon, and ½ lb sugar.
Boil the mixture while stirring continuously with the beaten whites of 2 eggs.
Allow it to boil once, then remove from heat and let it stand for 1 minute.
Strain
Pour boiling water into a flannel bag, wring it out, and keep it warm.
Pour the mixture into the bag and let it drip through without squeezing.
Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.
Explore the science
The flavor team
The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Madeira wine + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together343 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Madeira wine + lemontop 27% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together466 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Clarify the liquid by trapping particles as they boil, leaving it clear.
- Sicily madeira wine
- Gives the jelly its main flavour and aroma.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that balances the wine and lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and cuts the sweetness.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture with the beaten egg whites. Stirring while it heats lets the egg whites coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Letting it boil only once and then rest keeps the jelly clear, since extra boiling can break up the clarifying particles and cloud the liquid.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (madeira wine, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonthe original
- Currantfits less well
Fit is the average pairing score against madeira wine, sugar, egg. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.
“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.
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