Why it works: Wine and grape work together. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 819 recipes. Both carry 1-p-menthene-8-thiol, which smells grapefruit. The science ↓
Lemon Jelly No. I
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pour ½ cup cold water over the gelatine and lemons; let it stand for 3 hours.
In a separate bowl, combine 1¼ pounds of sugar with 1 quart of boiling water.
Set the jelly
Add 1 pint of wine and strain the mixture into moulds.
If desired, place grapes in the moulds and pour the jelly over them when it is just cool.
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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Wine + grapetop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together819 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-p-menthene-8-thiol (grapefruit).
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Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Lemon + grapetop 14% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,412 recipes
Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Sugar + grapetop 23% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together7,490 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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
- Gelatine
- Provides the gel structure that lets the jelly set firm.
- Lemons
- Add acidity and aroma that balance the sweetness of the jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps give the set jelly its body.
- Wine
- Adds flavour and liquid to the jelly.
The step that matters
Pouring the jelly over grapes when just cool. If the liquid is still hot, it can soften or cloud the fruit and the gelatine may not set evenly. Cooling slightly first keeps the grapes intact and the gel clear.
Swap the grape
The recipe marks grape as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, wine):
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits about as well
- Raspberryfits about as well
- Grapethe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, wine. 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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