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Dessert

Wink Jelly

A gelatin dessert flavored with sherry, cinnamon, sugar, and a pinch of salt.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Wink Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water.

  2. Add cinnamon, sugar, and salt to the gelatin mixture.

  3. Pour in boiling water and stir well until dissolved.

  4. Once cool, mix in sherry.

  5. Cover tightly to preserve the wine's flavor.

  6. Refrigerate until set.

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. Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + sherrytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sherry + gelatintop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + sherrytop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Sherry
Adds the wine flavor and a little acidity to the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the sherry's dryness.

The step that matters

Once cool, mix in sherry. Gelatin only sets properly when the liquid is no longer hot; adding alcohol to a very hot mixture can drive off its aroma and weaken setting, so let it cool first.

“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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