Why it works: Rice and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,744 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry and Rice Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Scald the cranberries and press to extract the juice.
In a pot, combine the cranberry juice with the rice (or tapioca or sago).
Boil until the mixture thickens and can be turned out of a mold.
Sweeten to taste.
Serve with wine, milk, or cream.
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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Rice + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- American cranberries
- Provide the tart juice that forms the base of the jelly.
- Rice
- Starch that thickens the juice as it boils, letting the mixture set into a jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart cranberry juice to taste.
The step that matters
Boil until the mixture thickens. Starch from the rice, tapioca or sago swells and gelatinises as it boils, and that thickening is what lets the jelly hold its shape when turned out of a mold. Stopping too early leaves it too loose 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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