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Jelly of Gelatine

A clear lemon gelatin made with gelatine, water, lemon rind, lemon juice, egg whites, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Jelly of Gelatine

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Pour 1 quart of boiling water over the gelatine and keep it near the fire until dissolved.

  2. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar, then let it boil once.

  3. Remove from heat and strain the mixture.

Clarify and set

  1. When lukewarm, add the beaten egg whites (washed and dried).

  2. Strain again until the jelly is perfectly clear.

  3. Pour into molds and set to cool.

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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Lemon and sugar 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, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Bind and trap particles as they cook, helping clarify the jelly for a clear result.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the lemon.

The step that matters

Straining until perfectly clear. Egg whites must be added once the mixture is lukewarm, not boiling hot, so they do not scramble. The whites coagulate and collect cloudy particles, so straining carefully through a fine cloth gives a clear jelly.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar. 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.

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