Name: Liqueur Jelly
Ingredients: 5 lemons; ⅓ cup rum; 1 ounce prepared isinglass; syrup (lukewarm)

Why it works: Rum and syrup work together. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 367 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Liqueur Jelly

Ingredients

5 lemons
⅓ cup rum
1 ounce prepared isinglass
syrup (lukewarm)

Directions

Press the juice of the lemons and strain it.
Add the lemon juice and rum to the lukewarm syrup.
Dissolve the prepared isinglass in the mixture.
Ice the mixture as usual.

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.

Rum + syruptop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together367 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Lemon + rumtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,341 recipes

Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,235 recipes

Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).