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Gelée a LA Macédoine

A clear maraschino jelly layered with assorted fresh fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Pineapple and apricot match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 377 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

Gelée a LA Macédoine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit and jelly

  1. Mix the fruits: strawberries, pineapple, wild strawberries, raspberries, white currants, red currants, pitted cherries, peeled apricot quarters, and orange quarters.

  2. Chill 1 liter of clear maraschino jelly until it is slightly firmer than regular jelly.

Layer the mold

  1. Prepare a decorative mold on ice and pour a thin layer of jelly into the bottom.

  2. Decorate the mold with the fruit mixture, then cover with another layer of jelly and allow to set.

  3. Once set, place small fruit bouquets on top, secured with slightly set jelly.

  4. Continue layering jelly and fruit until the mold is full, reserving larger fruits for the top.

Unmold and serve

  1. After one hour, unmold the jelly onto a plate with a layer of set jelly.

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. Pineapple + apricottop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together377 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Pineapple + orangetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,664 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Apricot + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together703 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Red currant + orangetop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together124 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  5. White currant + red curranttop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together4 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Maraschino jelly
Sets into a clear, firm body that holds the fruit in suspension.
Strawberries
Add natural sweetness and juiciness, and their color shows through the clear jelly.
Raspberries
Add tart aroma and bright color to the layered fruit.
Pineapple
Adds a sharp, tropical acidity that balances the sweetness of the jelly.
Orange quarters
Add citrusy aroma and a fresh, slightly bitter note.

The step that matters

Chill the jelly to slightly firmer than regular jelly. Jelly that is too liquid lets fruit float or sink instead of staying in place, and it will not hold the layers or the decorative bouquets. Slightly firmer jelly sets the fruit in position and keeps the layers distinct.

Swap the white currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (pineapple, red currant, apricot, orange):

  1. Peachfits better
  2. Raspberryfits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. White currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pineapple, red currant, apricot, orange. 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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