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Dessert

Pomona Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with sweet cider and ginger syrup, served with roast pork or goose.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 192 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Pomona Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatin in cold water for 15 minutes.

  2. Dissolve the soaked gelatin in boiling water.

  3. Add the sweet cider and sweeten to taste.

  4. Stir in the ginger syrup.

Mold and serve

  1. Strain into fancy individual molds that have been wet in cold water.

  2. Serve with roast pork, roast goose, or similar dishes.

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 + syruptop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together192 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Ginger + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together950 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Cider + gingertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together611 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  4. Cider + syruptop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together125 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Gelatin + gingertop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together86 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Granulated gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Sweet cider
Supplies most of the liquid and the main fruit flavour and sweetness.
Ginger syrup
Adds spicy aroma and extra sweetness to the jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatin completely. Gelatin must fully dissolve in the boiling water before the cider is added. Undissolved granules do not set evenly, leaving a speckled, uneven texture and weak spots in the finished jelly.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (gelatin, cider, syrup):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerthe original
  3. Clovefits about as well
  4. Allspicefits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, cider, syrup. 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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