Why it works: Lemon and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine in cold water.
Add the lemon juice, sugar, and wine.
Pour in the boiling water and strain through a cloth.
Let it cool and refrigerate overnight before serving.
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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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + coffeetop 17% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,344 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Coffee + winetop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together189 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-furfurylthiol (coffee, roasted).
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Lemon + coffeetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together578 recipes
Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools and chills.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Wine
- Gives the jelly its main flavour.
The step that matters
Dissolving the gelatine in cold water first. Gelatine must be hydrated in cold liquid so its granules swell evenly before heating. Adding it dry or to hot liquid can cause lumps and uneven setting.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, coffee, wine):
- Vanillafits better
- Grapefits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, coffee, wine. 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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