Name: Jelly, Egg
Ingredients: 6 ounces loaf sugar; 2 lemons; water; 2 eggs; 1 ounce sheet of gelatine

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Jelly, Egg

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavour

Rub the sugar on the rinds of the lemons.
Squeeze the juice from the lemons and add water to make 1 pint.

Make the jelly

Beat the eggs and combine them in a saucepan with the lemon juice, sugar, and gelatin.
Heat the mixture while whisking until it’s almost boiling.
Strain the mixture and pour it into small molds until firm.
Turn out the jelly and serve.

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.

Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together44,316 recipes

Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together122,807 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Sugar and lemon 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

Eggs: Beaten eggs thicken the liquid as they heat and add richness to the jelly.
Gelatine: Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar: Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemons: Provide acidity and aroma, with rind oils released by rubbing the sugar.

The step that matters

Heat the mixture while whisking until it’s almost boiling. Egg proteins thicken the mixture as it heats, but if it overheats or boils while the eggs are in, they can scramble and curdle. Constant whisking spreads the heat evenly and helps prevent lumps.