Why it works: Clove and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 17,182 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Isinglass Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Combine isinglass and cloves in a gallon of water.
Boil until reduced to half a gallon.
Strain the mixture over 4 pounds of loaf sugar.
Pour into molds and let 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.
-
Clove + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together17,182 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Clove and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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
- Isinglass
- Gelatin-like protein that sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Loaf sugar
- Provides sweetness and bulk, and helps give the set jelly its body.
- Cloves
- Adds aromatic spice flavor to the infused liquid.
The step that matters
Boil until reduced to half a gallon. Boiling concentrates the isinglass and flavor. If the liquid is reduced too little, the jelly may not set firmly; if reduced too far, it may become overly stiff. Measure the volume carefully.
“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.
More isinglass jelly recipes
You might also like
Clove Cake53 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.