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Dessert

Wine Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with wine, lemon, sugar, brandy, sherry, raisins, cinnamon, egg whites, and crushed egg shells.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Raisin and cinnamon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,390 recipes. Both carry 1-octen-3-ol, which smells mushroom, earthy. The science ↓

Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and flavourings

  1. Pour 1 pint of hot water over the gelatine and let it dissolve for 10 minutes.

  2. Squeeze the lemon juice over the sugar and add the grated rind.

  3. Add 1 more pint of hot water to the gelatine, then combine all ingredients.

  4. Add the cinnamon and raisins, followed by the brandy and sherry.

  5. Beat the egg whites and crush the shells, then add them to the mixture.

Cook and strain

  1. Place over medium heat and boil until a clear spot appears in the center. Do not stir, but prevent sticking to the bottom of the kettle.

  2. Remove from heat for a few minutes, then strain through a flannel bag twice.

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. Raisin + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,390 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Brandy + raisintop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,768 recipes

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

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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 jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities as they heat, helping clarify the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the jelly its body.
Lemons
Provide acidity that brightens the flavour and supports setting.

The step that matters

Boil without stirring. Stirring while the egg whites are coagulating breaks up the forming particles and can cloud the jelly. Gentle heat and no stirring let the impurities rise and collect, leaving a clear result.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, brandy, sherry, raisin, egg, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy, sherry, raisin, egg, cinnamon. 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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