Skip to main content
Dessert

Russian Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with gelatine, water, sugar, Sauterne, orange juice, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Russian Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Make same as other jellies.

  2. Cool slightly, then beat until frothy and firm enough to mould.

  3. Turn into mould and chill.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

123Calories
2 gProtein
0 gFat
31 gCarbs

Counts 3 of 4 ingredients. The other 1 aren't in our nutrition table and add nothing above, so the real totals are higher.

What these numbers assume: 3 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Orange1 medium (131g)62
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Lemonjuice of 1 lemon (48ml)12
Waternot in our table0

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By Fannie Merritt Farmer. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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.

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. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools and chills.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the citrus juices.
Sauterne
Adds sweet wine flavour and liquid to the jelly.
Orange juice
Adds fruity flavour and a little acidity.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sugar.

The step that matters

Cool slightly, then beat. Gelatine begins to set as it cools. If it cools too far before beating, it becomes too stiff to whip into a light, frothy texture, and if it stays too hot it will not set firmly in the mould.

“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