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 ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.
Make the jelly
Add boiling water, sugar, and lemon juice to the soaked gelatine.
Heat the mixture on the stove until boiling.
For better flavor, add a few thin slices of lemon just before straining.
Set and serve
Strain into molds and set in a cool place until ready to serve.
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.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity and bright lemon flavor that balances the sweetness.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness that offsets the sharpness of the lemon.
The step that matters
Heat until the gelatine fully dissolves. Undissolved gelatine leaves gritty, weak patches in the set jelly. Keep the mixture at a boil only as long as needed, since prolonged boiling can weaken gelatine's setting power.
“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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