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Dessert

Gelatine Delight

A gelatin dessert made with macaroons, marshmallows, candied cherries, almonds, and flavored with vanilla or sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Almond and vanilla match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,961 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Gelatine Delight

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine base

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 5 minutes.

  2. In a saucepan, combine boiling water and sugar; stir until melted.

  3. Add the soaked gelatine to the sugar mixture and stir until dissolved; strain through cheesecloth.

Combine and set

  1. In a bowl, combine the macaroons, marshmallows, candied cherries, and almonds.

  2. Once the gelatine mixture is cool, add it to the bowl and season with vanilla or sherry.

  3. As the mixture begins to harden, pour it into a mold that has been dipped in cold water.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

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.

  1. Almond + vanillatop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Sugar + almondtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,679 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 mixture into a firm, sliceable structure as it cools.
Macaroons
Add body and a toasty, almond-like flavour that soaks into the setting base.
Marshmallows
Melt slightly into the mixture, adding sweetness and a soft, chewy texture.
Sugar
Sweetens the base and helps give the set gelatine a tender texture.
Almonds
Add crunch and nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft setting mixture.

The step that matters

Cooling the gelatine before combining. If the gelatine mixture is still hot, it can melt the marshmallows and macaroons and prevent the dish from setting evenly. Waiting until it is cool but not yet firm keeps the texture even and lets the mixture be poured into the mold before it sets.

Swap the almond

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, vanilla):

  1. Chestnutfits about as well
  2. Almondthe original
  3. Hazelnutfits about as well
  4. Macadamia nutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, vanilla. 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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