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Dessert

Claret Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from claret wine, lemon, spices, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Claret Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

  2. Whisk over medium heat until it boils.

  3. Remove from heat and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Strain and set

  1. Strain the mixture to remove solids.

  2. Add a few drops of cochineal for color.

  3. Pour into molds and let set.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar 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

Egg whites
Whipped whites with crushed shells help clarify the jelly by trapping fine particles as it heats.
French gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Claret
Provides the main wine flavor and the deep red color of the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the acidity of the lemon juice and wine.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture to remove solids. Clarifying depends on the hot liquid being left to settle and then strained gently. Straining too early or too roughly leaves cloudiness and bits of spice, egg white, or shell in the set jelly, which hurts its clear appearance.

Swap the red currant

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, cinnamon, clove, egg, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, cinnamon, clove, egg, sugar. 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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