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 ↓
Strawberries Est Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Dissolve gelatine in cold water.
Add boiling water and sugar, stirring until dissolved.
Juice the lemon and add to the mixture.
When the jelly begins to thicken, arrange strawberries in a wet mould.
Set and serve
Pour the jelly over the strawberries and refrigerate until set.
Turn out onto a platter and garnish with whipped cream.
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 + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the jelly.
- Strawberries
- Provide fruit flavour, colour and texture suspended in the set jelly.
The step that matters
Pour the jelly at the right moment. If the jelly is too thin, the strawberries will float or sink unevenly. Waiting until it begins to thicken lets the fruit stay suspended in an even layout as it sets.
“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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