Skip to main content
Dessert

Hartshorn Jelly

Hartshorn jelly is a clear gelatin made from hartshorn shavings, water, wine, citrus, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Hartshorn Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil hartshorn shavings in water until one third of the water evaporates.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Let it cool.

  4. Melt the mixture again.

  5. Add orange and lemon peel for color.

  6. Skim the surface.

  7. Add white wine, lemon juice, and sugar.

  8. Taste.

  9. Adjust sweetness if necessary.

  10. Whisk the egg whites.

  11. Stir the egg whites into the mixture.

  12. Let it boil for a short time.

  13. Remove from heat.

  14. Add more lemon juice to taste.

  15. Pour the mixture into a jelly bag lined with egg whites.

  16. Let it hang near a fire until all the jelly runs off.

  17. Take a spoonful to test if it will set.

  18. Let it cool.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together730 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Lemon and sugar 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

Hartshorn shavings
Provides the gelling agent that lets the liquid set into a firm jelly when cooled.
Eggs
Whites clarify the jelly as they coagulate, trapping impurities that are then strained out.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice and wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.
White wine
Adds acidity and flavor to the jelly base.

The step that matters

Straining through the egg-white-lined jelly bag. Egg whites must be whisked and heated into the liquid so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles; the jelly then runs off clear when it is allowed to drip slowly and undisturbed.

“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.

You might also like

Orange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesLemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesOrange Cream Rice PuddingOrange Cream Rice Pudding121 recipes