Why it works: Nutmeg and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,917 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓
Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in 4 cups of cold water for 10 minutes.
Add 1 cup of boiling water and stir until the gelatine is dissolved.
Make the jelly
Mix in 2 cups of wine, ½ lb. of white sugar, lemon juice, lemon rind, nutmeg, and cinnamon or cloves.
Beat the egg whites until frothy and stir them into the mixture.
Heat the mixture gently on a slow fire, stirring until it boils, then remove from heat and let it stand for 1 minute.
Strain and set
Strain the mixture through a jelly bag, returning to the bag to strain again until clear.
Rinse the bag in boiling water and suspend it near the fire.
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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Nutmeg + cinnamontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,917 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Lemon + nutmegtop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together11,318 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Refined gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
- Egg whites
- Clarify the mixture, collecting impurities so the jelly strains clear.
- White sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the wine and lemon.
- Wine
- Provides the main flavour and liquid base of the jelly.
- Lemon
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet wine flavour.
The step that matters
Straining until clear. Egg whites must be heated with the liquid so they coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Straining too early, or rushing the boil, leaves the jelly cloudy rather than clear.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (wine, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, egg):
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raisinfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
- Figfits about as well
Fit is the average pairing score against wine, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, 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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