Why it works: Corn and wine work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 366 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Jelly Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the corn starch in the water or wine.
Add the mixture to the jelly and bring it to a boil.
Place the sauce in a dish of hot water to keep it warm until serving, stirring occasionally.
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.
-
Corn + winetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together366 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body without changing its flavor much.
- Any flavored jelly
- Provides the sweetness and fruit flavor that forms the base of the sauce.
The step that matters
Dissolve the corn starch fully before adding it to the jelly. Corn starch clumps if added dry or undissolved, leaving lumps. Mixing it into cold water or wine first lets the granules separate, so they thicken evenly once the sauce reaches a boil.
“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.
More jelly sauce recipes
You might also like
The free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.
Wine Sauce (for stewed fruit)186 recipes
Wine Sauce for Sweet Puddings6 recipes
Caper Sauce180 recipes
Brown Sauce141 recipes