Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine in the cold water.
Add the boiling water and sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Once it boils slightly, strain the mixture.
Slice the lemons and add them to the mixture.
Place in a very cold area to set.
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.
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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, wobbly gel as it cools.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the lemon's sharpness.
- Lemons
- Add sharp acidity and citrus flavour to the jelly.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine fully. Gelatine must dissolve completely in the cold water before the hot liquid is added. Undissolved granules leave gritty specks and weak spots. Boiling it hard for too long also weakens its setting power, so keep the mixture just below a rolling 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.
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