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Dessert

Arrowroot Wine Jelly

A clear jelly made from arrowroot, water, sugar, and wine or brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,073 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Arrowroot Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Blend the arrowroot with the cold water until smooth.

  2. Strain the mixture into the boiling water, stirring briskly.

  3. Add the sugar and simmer for 5 minutes until clear.

Finish and serve

  1. Remove from heat and stir in the wine or brandy.

  2. Let it cool, then serve with cream and additional sugar if desired.

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. Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Arrowroot + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together153 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Bermuda arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a clear, glossy jelly as its starch gelatinises when heated.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the flavour of the wine or brandy.
Wine or brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the arrowroot mixture into the boiling water while stirring briskly. Arrowroot starch clumps if it meets hot liquid without being dispersed. Brisk stirring spreads the starch evenly so it thickens smoothly and clearly as the liquid heats, rather than setting in lumps.

Swap the arrowroot

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, wine):

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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