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Dessert

Punch Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with lemon juice, sugar, egg whites, rum, brandy, and sherry.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 146 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Punch Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in 1½ pints of water.

  2. Add the juice of 2 lemons.

  3. Add 4 ounces of sugar.

  4. Heat until melted.

  5. Whisk the egg whites in ½ cup of water and add the whisked egg whites to the mixture.

  6. Bring to a boil.

  7. Let stand for 2 minutes.

  8. Strain through a jelly bag.

  9. Pour back 2 or 3 times until clear.

  10. Add ½ cup of rum, ½ cup of brandy and ½ cup of sherry.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a mold.

  2. Let set.

  3. Dip the mold in warm water for 20 seconds.

  4. Wipe with a cloth.

  5. Turn out onto a silver or glass dish.

  6. Garnish with natural flowers.

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. Rum + sherrytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  3. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + sherrytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,273 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Gelatine
Forms the firm, wobbly structure that sets the jelly.
Egg whites
Whisked into the hot mixture, they collect impurities so the jelly can be strained clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and bright flavour that cuts the sweetness.
Rum
Adds alcoholic warmth and aroma to the jelly.
Brandy
Adds depth of flavour and aroma.

The step that matters

Clearing the jelly with egg whites. Egg whites must be whisked in and brought to a boil, then left to stand so the coagulated whites trap cloudy particles. Straining through a jelly bag and pouring back repeatedly removes them; skipping this leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pineapplefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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