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Isinglass Jelly

A clear jelly made from isinglass, citrus, wine, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Isinglass Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in 1 pint of water.

  2. Add the rind and juice of the lemon, the juice of the oranges, and the white wine.

  3. Boil until the isinglass is completely dissolved.

Strain and set

  1. Strain through a doubled napkin or swanskin.

  2. Pour into a basin if using for glasses, or into molds.

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. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together730 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 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

Isinglass
Gelling agent that sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
White wine
Adds body of flavour and a light acidity to the jelly.
Lemon
Adds sharp acidity and aroma from the juice and rind.
Oranges
Adds juice for sweetness, fruit flavour and extra acidity.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the acidity of the citrus and wine.

The step that matters

Boil until the isinglass is completely dissolved. Isinglass is a collagen-based gelatin. If any granules stay undissolved, they will not set evenly, leaving cloudy specks and weak patches in the finished jelly.

“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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