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Dessert

Coffee Jelly

A chilled gelatin dessert flavored with coffee and sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Coffee Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Soften the gelatin in the cold water.

  2. Add the boiling water, sugar, and coffee.

  3. Stir until well dissolved.

  4. Strain through cheesecloth into a mold.

  5. Refrigerate until set.

Serve

  1. Serve with whipped cream flavored with a little orange.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Coffee + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,344 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Gelatin + coffeetop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: maltol (caramel, sweet).

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

What each ingredient does

Gelatin
Provides the structure that lets the coffee liquid set into a firm jelly.
Strong coffee
Supplies the main coffee flavor and most of the liquid in the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that balances the bitterness of the coffee.

The step that matters

Stir until well dissolved. Gelatin must dissolve completely in the hot liquid. Undissolved granules leave specks and weak spots, so the jelly sets unevenly and can feel grainy.

“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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