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Dessert

Variegated Jelly

A layered jelly made with wine, pink gelatin, egg yolks, and vanilla, set in molds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Variegated Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Divide the box of gelatine into halves and place each half in a bowl with ½ cup cold water.

  2. Put the pink gelatine in a third bowl with ¾ cup cold water and cover the bowls.

  3. Let sit for 2 hours.

Make the jellies

  1. Add 1 pint boiling water, 1 cup sugar, ½ pint wine, and lemon juice to the pink gelatine.

  2. Stir until dissolved and strain through a napkin.

  3. Repeat the same process with one of the other portions of gelatine.

  4. Beat together 4 egg yolks and ½ cup sugar.

  5. Add to the third portion of gelatine.

  6. Stir this mixture into 1⅓ pints boiling milk in a double boiler and stir for 3 minutes.

  7. Strain through a fine sieve.

  8. Add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Layer and set

  1. Place 2 molds (each holding about 3 pints) in a deep pan surrounded by ice and water.

  2. Pour the wine jelly into the molds in equal parts.

  3. Let it harden.

  4. Pour in the pink gelatine, ensuring it is not too cold to harden.

  5. After it has set, pour the egg mixture into the molds while still liquid.

  6. Set the molds in an ice chest for 3 to 4 hours.

Unmould and serve

  1. Dip the molds in tepid water to loosen the jelly.

  2. Gently turn it out onto flat dishes.

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. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

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

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

  3. Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Lemon + vanillatop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,961 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + milktop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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 liquids into a firm, sliceable jelly structure.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness and a creamy texture.
Milk
Gives the creamy layer its body, softness and mild flavor.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the wine and lemon.
Wine
Adds flavor and acidity to the wine jelly layer.

The step that matters

Stirring the egg yolk mixture into the boiling milk. Egg yolks thicken gently with moderate heat. Too much heat or too fast a pour can scramble them, leaving grainy specks, so the mixture should be stirred steadily in a double boiler and then strained.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Figfits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, wine, egg, milk, 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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