Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
To Make Any Kind Op Fruit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Wash and drain the fruit, then place it in a stone jar.
Put the jar into a kettle of water over the fire and let it boil, ensuring no water enters the fruit.
Once the fruit is tender and begins to break, pour it into a flannel bag without squeezing.
Make the jelly
For each pint of strained juice, add 1 to 1¼ pounds of white sugar and ½ of a beaten egg white.
Boil the mixture rapidly for twenty minutes, skimming but not stirring.
Test a small amount in cold water to check if it jellies; if not, boil longer.
Avoid over-boiling or under-boiling, as this can affect the jelly's texture.
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.
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- White sugar
- Sweetens the juice and, with boiling, helps it set into a firm jelly.
- Egg white
- Rises to the surface when heated, carrying impurities that can be skimmed off to clarify the jelly.
- Fruit
- Provides the juice, which contains the natural pectin and acid needed for the jelly to set.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar. Boiling rapidly for the set time concentrates the sugar and pectin so the jelly sets. Under-boiling leaves it runny, while over-boiling can make it stiff or grainy.
“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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