Name: Wine Jelly
Ingredients: 1 large package of gelatine; 1 pint cold water; 2 lemons (zest and juice); 2 egg whites and shells; 1 pint hot water (not boiling); ½ cup wine; ⅓ cup whisky; 1 teaspoon cinnamon; 1 cup sugar

Why it works: Lemon and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 7,950 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

Soak the gelatine in cold water for several hours.
Grate the rinds of the lemons and add them with the juice, egg whites, and shells to a pot.

Cook and strain

Add hot water, wine, whisky, cinnamon, and sugar to the pot and bring to a boil.
Skim off any foam.
Strain the mixture through a flannel bag.
Add the remaining sugar and wine.

Set

Pour into a mold and allow 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.

Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together7,950 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together30,779 recipes

Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Wine + whiskytop 12% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together106 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Wine + cinnamontop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together2,170 recipes

Shared aroma: 4-methoxybenzaldehyde (sweet, anise).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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: Clarify the liquid by trapping particles that are then strained out, leaving it clear.
Sugar: Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon and wine.
Lemons: Juice adds acidity and zest adds aroma and bright flavour.

The step that matters

Skim off any foam. Foam carries impurities and clouds the jelly. Removing it before straining keeps the finished jelly clear and clean-tasting.

Swap the lemon

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

Vanillafits better
Applefits better
Figfits better
Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, wine, whisky, cinnamon, 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.