Skip to main content
Dessert

Creams, Jellies, Omelets, Etc

A jelly made from reduced liquor, sugar, egg whites, isinglass, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Creams, Jellies, Omelets, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the liquor

  1. Remove any scum from the liquor as it rises.

  2. Boil the liquor gently for 6 to 7 hours until reduced by more than half.

  3. Strain the liquor through a sieve into a basin and let it cool to set.

  4. Remove all fat from the top of the cooled liquor and wash with warm water.

Make the jelly

  1. In a saucepan, combine the strained liquor, sugar, and egg whites cold.

  2. Heat the saucepan without stirring until it begins to warm.

  3. Boil for about 10 minutes after it rises to a head.

  4. Add a teacupful of cold water and boil for 5 more minutes.

  5. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 1 hour near the fire.

Filter and strain

  1. Prepare a jelly bag by dipping it in hot water and wringing it out dry.

  2. Fasten the jelly bag to a stand or chair near the fire and place a basin underneath.

  3. Pour the jelly into the bag and let it run through; repeat if not clear.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind impurities into a foam that is skimmed off, leaving the jelly clear.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that sets the liquor into a firm jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.

The step that matters

Heating without stirring. Stirring while the egg whites and liquor heat breaks up the forming foam, so impurities mix back in and the jelly turns cloudy instead of clear.

“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

White CakeWhite Cake431 recipesPound CakePound Cake373 recipesOrange Bundt CakeOrange Bundt Cake349 recipesSpice CakeSpice Cake344 recipes