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Dessert

Fruit Jellies

A preserved fruit jelly made with sugar, isinglass, and fruit, boiled and set in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and currant are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 12,256 recipes. The science ↓

Fruit Jellies

Ingredients

Directions

Clarify the syrup

  1. Clarify the sugar by breaking it up and mixing it with water.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in enough hot water to cover it.

  3. Heat the sugar mixture until it begins to boil.

  4. Add the melted isinglass.

  5. Skim the syrup until clear.

  6. Remove from heat and let it settle.

Prepare the fruit juice

  1. Prepare the fruit by removing stems and placing it in a jar.

  2. Set the jar in warm water.

  3. Bring the fruit to a boil.

  4. Remove the jar.

  5. Press the fruit through a fine sieve to extract the juice.

Make and set the jelly

  1. Mix the warm juice with the clarified sugar.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes.

  3. Pour the mixture into jars or glasses.

  4. Cover with brandy paper.

  5. Pour into a mold.

  6. Chill in ice for 2-3 hours.

  7. Loosen the jelly by placing the mold in warm water.

  8. Turn it out.

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. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and currant barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 12,256 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

Isinglass
Gelatine-like protein that sets the juice into a firm, wobbly jelly when cooled.
Small fruit
Supplies the juice and the flavour of the jelly.
Best loaf sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps give it body as the syrup thickens.

The step that matters

Skim the syrup until clear. Skimming removes foam and impurities from the boiling sugar, so the finished jelly is clear rather than cloudy.

“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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