Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓
Clear Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jelly
Put the calves' feet in a saucepan with 3 quarts of water and boil until reduced to 3 pints.
Strain the mixture through a sieve into a bowl and let it sit overnight to separate the fat.
Clarify and strain
In a saucepan, combine the jelly with 1½ pints of white wine, lemon juice, lemon peel, sugar, beaten egg whites, and cinnamon. If using for moulds, add 1 ounce of isinglass before heating.
Heat the mixture, removing it from the heat as it rises, then return it to the heat and repeat.
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.
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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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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White wine + lemontop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,832 recipes
Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Calves' feet
- Release gelatin when simmered for a long time, which sets the jelly.
- Egg whites
- Coagulate as the mixture heats, trapping impurities so the jelly clears.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and helps the jelly stay clear.
- White wine
- Adds flavour and liquid to the jelly base.
The step that matters
Heating and straining the clarifying mixture. Heating must be stopped each time it rises so the egg whites can coagulate and collect impurities without boiling over. Straining through a flannel bag then removes these particles, leaving the jelly clear.
Swap the cinnamon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, lemon, sugar, egg):
- Tarragonfits about as well
- Nutmegfits about as well
- Parsleyfits about as well
- Cinnamonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, lemon, sugar, egg. 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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