Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓
Orange Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the gelatine
Moisten the gelatine with cold water.
Pour the boiling water over the gelatine.
Add the sugar and fruit juice.
Let it boil once.
Set in the mould
Strain into a mould that has been wet with cold water.
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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Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together10,634 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + orangetop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together19,212 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
- Forms the gel that gives the jelly its firm, wobbly set.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the citrus juices.
- Orange juice
- Supplies the main flavour and some acidity to the jelly.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that sharpens the flavour and balances the sugar.
The step that matters
Let it boil once. Gelatine loses its setting strength when it is boiled for long or repeatedly, so the mixture should be brought to the boil only once and then strained and left to set.
“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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