Why it works: Cinnamon and nutmeg 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 ↓
Claret Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the gelatine
Soak the gelatine in water for 30 minutes.
Flavour the claret
Pour the claret into a saucepan.
Add the lemon rind, cinnamon, nutmeg, and red currant jelly.
Simmer these ingredients for 30 minutes.
Make the jelly
Combine the soaked gelatine with its water in a saucepan.
Add the egg white and eggshell.
Stir in the castor sugar.
Beat the mixture with an egg whisk until it boils for a few minutes.
Strain through a hot water-dipped napkin.
Strain the claret through a napkin and mix with the gelatine and sugar.
Moisten an open mould and pour the mixture in.
Once set, turn out and serve with whipped cream in the center.
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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Cinnamon + nutmegtop 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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Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Cinnamon + red curranttop 11% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together93 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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
- Leaf gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when cooled.
- Claret
- Forms the main liquid and gives the jelly its colour and wine flavour.
- Egg white
- Clarifies the jelly as it heats, collecting impurities that are then strained out.
- Castor sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and adds body to the liquid.
- Red currant jelly
- Adds fruity tartness and deepens the colour of the claret.
The step that matters
Beating the mixture until it boils. Heating the egg white while stirring lets it coagulate and trap cloudy particles. Boiling it too vigorously or skipping the straining can leave the jelly cloudy rather than clear.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, egg, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, cinnamon, nutmeg, 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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