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Dessert

Wine Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with wine, lemon, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Sherry and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,209 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour or more.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the soaked gelatine.

  3. Add the egg whites, crushed shells, sugar, lemon juice, lemon peel, and cinnamon.

  4. Bring the mixture to a boil and let it boil for 3 minutes without stirring.

Clarify and set

  1. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.

  2. Skim off any foam and add the clear wine.

  3. Strain the mixture through a jelly bag until clear.

  4. Rinse out molds with cold water and fill them with the jelly.

  5. Set the molds in a cold place to harden.

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. Sherry + brandytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  4. Brandy + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Sherry + cinnamontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities as they heat, so they can be skimmed off and the jelly turns clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright flavor; the peel adds aroma.
Sherry
Adds wine flavor and depth to the jelly.

The step that matters

Skim the foam and strain until clear. Egg whites trap cloudy particles as they boil, forming a foam. Skimming and straining through a jelly bag remove it, so the jelly sets clear rather than cloudy.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, brandy, sugar, egg, cinnamon):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, brandy, sugar, egg, cinnamon. 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.

More wine jelly recipes

Port 43Arrowroot 13Constantia 6Madeira 6Apricot 3Lemon 3 See all 239 →

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