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Dessert

Red Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from calf's heel stock, red currant juice, and sugar, set in a mold with cherries or currants.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Red currant and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,156 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Red Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine the clear stock, red currant juice, and sugar in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture for 5 minutes.

Set and unmold

  1. Strain a small amount into a mold.

  2. Place a bunch of cherries or currants in the center of the mold.

  3. Pour the remaining jelly mixture into the mold.

  4. Allow to cool completely before unmolding.

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. Red currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,156 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Clear calf's heel stock
Clear stock rich in gelatin, which firms as it cools to set the jelly.
Red currant juice
Tart juice whose natural pectin and acidity help the jelly set and taste bright.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the jelly set firm and hold its shape.

The step that matters

Allow to cool completely before unmolding. The jelly sets as it cools, as gelatin and pectin form a network that gives it firmness. Unmolding before it is fully set can make it slump, tear, or lose its shape.

“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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