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Dessert

Sago Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from sago, water, lemon peel, cloves, wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Sago Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the sago in cold water for one hour and wash thoroughly.

Cook and flavor

  1. In a pot, simmer the sago with water, lemon peel, and cloves until nearly done.

  2. Add wine and sugar to taste before serving.

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. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Clove + winetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,958 recipes

    Shared aroma: cis-isoeugenol (clove, spicy).

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Lemon and sugar 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

Sago
Starch that thickens the liquid and sets into a jelly as it cools.
Wine
Adds acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the lemon and wine.

The step that matters

Simmering the sago until nearly done. Sago grains must be cooked until they are nearly translucent and fully softened; undercooked grains stay firm and chalky, while overcooking can break them down and leave the jelly cloudy and sticky. Stopping at nearly done lets the grains finish gelling as the mixture cools.

Swap the clove

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, wine, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Rosemaryfits better
  3. Thymefits better
  4. Clovethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, wine, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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