Skip to main content
Dessert

Sliced Figs in Sherry Wine Jelly

A chilled gelatin dessert of sliced figs set in sherry wine and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Gelatin and cream match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,628 recipes. Both carry acetic acid, which smells sour, vinegar. The science ↓

Sliced Figs in Sherry Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Soften the gelatin in the cold water.

  2. Dissolve the gelatin in the boiling water.

  3. Add the sugar gradually until the mixture is cold.

  4. Stir in the sherry wine and lemon juice.

Assemble and serve

  1. Chill a mold that holds about 1 pint in cold or ice water.

  2. Slice the figs and dip some slices in the jelly mixture to decorate the mold.

  3. Fill the mold alternately with slices of figs and the jelly mixture, allowing it to set partially each time.

  4. Garnish with whipped cream.

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 + creamtop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,628 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetic acid (sour, vinegar).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Sherry + figtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  4. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Lemon + figtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together763 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

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, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor of the sherry and figs.
Figs
Provide the fruit flavor and visible pieces set within the jelly.
Sherry wine
Adds aroma and a rich, fortified wine flavor to the jelly.

The step that matters

Allowing the jelly to set partially between layers. If each layer is poured before the previous one has partly set, the figs will float or sink and the layers will mix. Gelatin needs to thicken enough to hold the fruit in place before the next layer goes in.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, sugar, sherry, wine, fig, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Strawberryfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, sherry, wine, fig, cream. 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.

You might also like

Lemon CakeLemon Cake228 recipesLemon IceLemon Ice147 recipesLemon SherbetLemon Sherbet103 recipesLemon CustardLemon Custard64 recipes