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Dessert

Punch Jelly

Punch jelly is a sweet, citrus-based gelatin made with lemon, orange, sugar, isinglass, brandy, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Punch Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the flavouring

  1. Rub the yellow part of the lemons with 1 or 2 lumps of sugar. Add more sugar until the total sugar is 10 ounces.

  2. In a bowl, combine the sugar with the strained juice of 3 lemons and 1 Seville orange. Set the bowl aside.

Make the isinglass base

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine 1.5 ounces of isinglass with 1 pint of cold water. Stir over heat until boiling.

  2. Reduce heat and let simmer gently for 30 minutes.

  3. After 20 minutes, add a lump of sugar. Add 1 teaspoon of vinegar. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water. Stir lightly.

  4. Remove any scum. Strain the mixture through a napkin.

Combine and set

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine the strained mixture with the contents of the bowl, ¼ pint of brandy, and ¼ pint of rum. Simmer gently for 4 minutes.

  2. Strain through a jelly bag into a mold.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Brandy + rumtop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Orange + rumtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together801 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  5. Vinegar + rumtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together82 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps give it a clear, firm body.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.
Seville orange juice
Adds bitter-sharp citrus aroma and acidity.
Brandy
Adds aroma and alcoholic warmth to the finished jelly.
Rum
Adds depth of flavour and aroma to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Remove any scum and strain the isinglass mixture. Isinglass is a gelatin-like protein that clarifies as it simmers. Skimming scum and straining through a napkin removes impurities so the jelly sets clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, orange, vinegar, brandy, rum):

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, orange, vinegar, brandy, rum. 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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