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Dessert

Coffee Jelly

Coffee Jelly is a chilled gelatin dessert made with coffee, sugar, vanilla, and whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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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 ↓

Coffee Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatin

  1. Soak gelatin in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in boiling water and strain through a sieve.

Make the jelly

  1. Add sugar and strong coffee to the gelatin mixture, then stir in vanilla.

  2. Pour the mixture into a ring mold and chill until set.

Serve

  1. Unmold onto a cold glass platter.

  2. Fill the center of the mold with sweetened whipped cream flavored with vanilla.

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. Vanilla + sugartop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

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

Vanilla and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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 coffee liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Strong coffee
Provides the main flavor and color of the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the coffee so its bitterness is balanced.
Whipped cream
Adds a soft, rich contrast to the firm jelly.
Vanilla
Adds aroma that rounds out the coffee and cream flavors.

The step that matters

Chill until fully set before unmolding. Gelatin firms as it cools, so the jelly needs enough chilling time to hold its ring shape. Unmolding too early can cause it to slump or tear.

“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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