Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate the rind and squeeze the juice from the lemons.
Make the jelly
Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the gelatine and stir until dissolved.
Add the lemon juice and sugar to the gelatine mixture.
Mix well and strain into molds.
If the mixture is warm, use a little more gelatine.
Set
Refrigerate until set.
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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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemons
- Provide acidity and aroma from the juice and rind.
The step that matters
Adding gelatine to the hot liquid. Gelatine must dissolve fully in the boiling water, or undissolved granules leave gritty spots and weak set. If the mixture is warm when poured, the jelly may not set firm, so a little more gelatine may be needed.
“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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