Why it works: Wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Lemoit Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 1 hour.
Make the jelly
Add hot water, wine, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon rind.
Boil for 30 seconds and strain.
If omitting wine, stir in beaten egg whites before cooling.
Set
Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.
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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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Wine + sugartop 31% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together9,581 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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.
- Sugar
- Provides sweetness and rounds out the flavour of the jelly.
- Wine
- Adds flavour and a touch of acidity to the clear liquid.
- Lemons
- Juice brings acidity and the rind adds bright citrus aroma.
The step that matters
Stirring in the egg whites before cooling. Stiff beaten whites must be mixed in while the liquid is still warm and fluid. Once the gelatine begins to set, the whites will not blend evenly and can stay in lumps.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Applefits about as well
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, egg. 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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