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Dessert

Fruit Gelatine

A fruit gelatin dessert made with sugar, citrus juices, gelatine, dried fruit, nuts, and optional sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange 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 ↓

Fruit Gelatine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatine

  1. Dissolve gelatine in a little cold water, then add 1 pint boiling water.

  2. Strain the mixture when thoroughly dissolved.

  3. Add sugar, lemon juice, and orange juice.

  4. Stir in chopped figs, raisins, nuts, or any other desired fruit.

  5. Place the mixture on the stove and bring to a boil.

  6. Remove from heat and let cool, then add sherry to taste.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold rinsed in cold water and place in a cool place.

  2. Serve with vanilla sauce.

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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

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

  2. Fig + walnuttop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  3. Orange + figtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together407 recipes

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

  4. Fig + raisintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together737 recipes

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

  5. Sherry + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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 gel as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the citrus juices.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the set gel.
Raisins
Add chewy texture and concentrated sweetness throughout the gel.
Nuts
Add crunch and contrast to the soft, wobbly gel.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine fully before adding the juices. Gelatine only sets properly when completely dissolved in hot liquid. Undissolved granules leave soft spots, and adding acidic juice or sugar before the gelatine has fully dissolved can weaken the set, so strain and check for clumps first.

Swap the nuts

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, orange, sherry, fig, raisin, walnut):

  1. Almondfits better
  2. Pistachiofits better
  3. Chestnutfits better
  4. Nutsthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, orange, sherry, fig, raisin, walnut. 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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