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Dessert

Russian Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with water, sherry, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar 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 ↓

Russian Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatin in ¾ pint of water until dissolved.

  2. Add ⅓ cup of sherry and ½ pound of sugar, mixing well.

  3. Allow the mixture to cool.

  4. Whip the mixture with a whisk until it forms a stiff froth.

Shape and serve

  1. Mold the jelly into rough lumps.

  2. Color half of the jelly with cochineal.

  3. Create alternate colored lumps.

  4. Serve the lumps.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Gelatin + sherrytop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together138 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + sugartop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,141 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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 jelly structure as it dissolves and cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps give the jelly its body.
Sherry
Adds flavor and aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Whip the mixture until it forms a stiff froth. The jelly must be cool enough to whip, since warm gelatin mixtures will not hold a stable foam and the froth needs to set firm enough to form lumps.

“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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