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Dessert

Variegated Jelly

A layered jelly made with wine, pink gelatine, and egg yolk mixture.

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 of cold water.

  2. In a third bowl, combine ¾ ounce of pink gelatine with ¾ cup of cold water.

  3. Cover and let sit for 2 hours.

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

  5. Stir until dissolved and strain through a napkin.

  6. Prepare one of the other gelatine portions the same way.

Make the custard

  1. Beat the yolks of 4 eggs with ½ cup of sugar.

  2. Add this to the third portion of gelatine and stir into 1⅓ pints of boiling milk in a double boiler.

  3. Stir on heat for 3 minutes.

  4. Then strain through a fine sieve and add 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Set the layers and serve

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

  2. Pour equal parts of the wine jelly into the molds and let it harden.

  3. Once set, pour in the pink gelatine, which should be kept at a temperature that prevents it from hardening.

  4. After the pink gelatine has set, pour the egg mixture into the molds while still liquid.

  5. Chill the molds in an ice chest for 3 to 4 hours.

  6. To serve, dip the molds in tepid water to loosen the jelly and 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 liquid into a firm jelly that holds its shape when turned out.
Egg yolks
Thicken the milk mixture and add richness to the custard layer.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tart lemon and wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the wine jelly.
Wine
Adds flavour and aroma to the clear jelly layer.
Milk
Forms the base of the custard, giving it creaminess and body.

The step that matters

Stir the egg yolk mixture into the hot milk gently. Egg yolks thicken when heated, but if the mixture gets too hot or is stirred too hard it can curdle or scramble. Keeping the heat gentle in a double boiler lets it thicken smoothly.

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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