Why it works: Tea and nutmeg work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 202 recipes. Both carry 4'-methylacetophenone, which smells bitter almond. The science ↓
Arrow Root Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Heat the sweetened water
Put rather more than one pint of water, sweetened with white sugar, over the fire.
Season with brandy and nutmeg.
Thicken and boil
Stir one large spoonful of arrow root into a tea-cupful of cold water.
Pour it in when the water boils.
Stir well, and boil four or five minutes.
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. See the original page.
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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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Tea + nutmegtop 13% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together202 recipes
Shared aroma: 4'-methylacetophenone (bitter almond).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Arrow root
- Thickens the liquid into a clear jelly as its starch swells and sets when heated with water.
The step that matters
Pour the arrowroot mixture in while the water boils and stir well. Arrowroot is a starch that thickens only when heated in liquid. Adding it to boiling water and stirring disperses the grains evenly, preventing lumps, and the mixture thickens as it boils.
“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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