Why it works: Cherry and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,598 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cherry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Dissolve the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.
Add boiling cherry juice and sugar to taste.
Strain the mixture through a flannel jelly bag.
Pour into moulds dipped in cold water.
Set and serve
Place on ice and let stand overnight.
To serve, loosen the edges and turn out onto white china plates or glass dishes.
Garnish with curled parsley or sprays of asparagus.
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.
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Cherry + sugartop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together2,598 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Cherry juice
- Provides the main flavour and colour of the jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the tartness of the cherry juice.
The step that matters
Dissolving the gelatine in cold water. Gelatine must be fully hydrated before heating, so it swells evenly. Undissolved granules left in the liquid can cause a cloudy, grainy jelly that does not set smoothly.
“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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