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Dessert

Macedoine Jelly

A fruit jelly made with gelatin, lemon juice, sugar, egg whites, and mixed fresh fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Grape and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,659 recipes. Both carry 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine, which smells green bell pepper, earthy. The science ↓

Macedoine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatine in the water for 1 hour.

  2. Add the lemon juice, sugar, and whisked egg whites mixed with a little cold water.

  3. Gently stir over heat until boiling, then let it settle for a few minutes.

  4. Strain through a flannel jelly bag, pouring back a few times until clear.

Set the jelly in the mold

  1. Place fresh fruit in a jelly mold and stand it in cold water.

  2. Pour some liquid jelly over the fruit and let it set.

  3. Fill the mold with the remaining jelly and set aside to firm up.

Serve

  1. To serve, dip the mold in warm water for a few seconds, wipe it, and turn it out onto a silver or glass dish.

  2. Garnish with a little fresh fruit around the base.

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. Grape + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,659 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  2. Lemon + appletop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Lemon + grapetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,412 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Sugar + appletop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Sugar and apple barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Clarify the jelly, collecting impurities as they cook so the result runs clear.
Lemons
Add acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.

The step that matters

Straining through the flannel jelly bag. Pouring the liquid back through the bag several times removes cloudiness, so the jelly stays clear. Rushing this leaves the set jelly murky.

Swap the lemon

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

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

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