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Dessert

Irish Moss Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from Irish moss, coffee, lemon, and sugar, finished with whipped egg whites and cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Syrup and sugar match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Irish Moss Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the moss

  1. Soak ½ cup Irish moss in cold water to cover, then drain and pick over.

  2. Put the moss in a double boiler with 14 cups cold water and cook for 45 minutes.

  3. Drain the moss, then add lemon juice and syrup to taste.

  4. Cool the mixture.

  5. Serve.

Make the coffee jelly

  1. Soak 4 boxes of gelatine in 2 cups of cold coffee until soft.

  2. Warm the coffee on the stove until the gelatine melts, then add 1 cup sugar and the juice of 1 lemon.

  3. Pour into a mold and refrigerate until set.

  4. Once set, turn out of the mold and chop into chunks.

Finish and serve

  1. Whip the egg whites until stiff.

  2. Melt the jelly slightly on the stove.

  3. Mix in the whipped egg whites.

  4. Refrigerate until formed.

  5. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Syrup + sugartop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

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

  3. Irish moss + lemontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together61 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  4. Syrup + creamtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,964 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Syrup + coffeetop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together318 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Irish moss
Provides the gelling power that thickens the liquid and helps it set.
Gelatine (in the method)
Sets the coffee liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly once chilled.
Egg whites
Whipped into foam, they add air and a light, fluffy texture to the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the bitterness of the strong coffee.

The step that matters

Mix in the whipped egg whites. The jelly must be only slightly melted and cooled, so it is thick enough to hold the foam. If it is too hot, the whites deflate; if it has set, the whites will not blend evenly.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (irish moss, syrup, coffee, sugar, egg, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Peachfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against irish moss, syrup, coffee, sugar, egg, cream. 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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