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Dessert

Lemon Jelly

A clear lemon gelatin made with gelatine, water, lemon, saccharin, egg white, shell, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Egg and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 17% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,340 recipes. Both carry acetoin, which smells butter, cream. The science ↓

Lemon Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in ½ pint of water for 30 minutes.

  2. In a saucepan, combine 1½ pints of water with the lemon peel and juice. Bring to a boil for a few minutes.

  3. Pour the boiling water over the soaked gelatine and sweeten with saccharin.

Clarify

  1. Return to the saucepan and stir in the beaten egg white and shell.

  2. Gradually bring to a boil and let it boil for 1 minute.

  3. Remove from heat and let it stand for 2 minutes. Skim well.

  4. Strain through a jelly bag until clear, then add the brandy.

Set

  1. When nearly cold, pour into a jelly mold to set.

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. Egg + brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

  3. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

Lemon and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 44,316 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
Forms the gel structure that lets the jelly set firm when cooled.
Egg white
Its proteins coagulate as it heats, collecting impurities so the jelly turns clear.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour; added after clarifying so it is not boiled off.

The step that matters

Gradually bring to a boil, then skim well. Egg white must rise slowly with the liquid so it can trap cloudy particles; boiling too fast can break the foam, leaving the jelly cloudy. Skimming removes the coagulated residue before straining.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, brandy):

  1. Currantfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, brandy. 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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