Why it works: Lemon and almond match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,655 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓
Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine in 1 pint of water.
Pour in 1 quart of boiling water.
Add the rind and juice of 2 lemons, almonds, sugar, and wine.
Strain the mixture and pour it into moulds to cool.
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 + almondtop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together5,655 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Almond + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together15,679 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Almond + winetop 25% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,260 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-pentanedione (butter, sweet).
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, wobbly jelly as it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and sharpens the sweetness.
- Wine
- Gives the jelly its main flavour and aroma.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine fully before adding the other liquids. Gelatine only sets when it is completely dissolved and evenly distributed. Undissolved granules can leave weak or grainy patches in the finished jelly.
Swap the almond
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, wine):
- Chickpeafits about as well
- Chestnutfits about as well
- Almondthe original
- Pistachiofits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, 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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