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Dessert

A Wine Jelly for Invalids

A gelatinous dessert made with orange juice, peel, egg yolks, isinglass, sherry, cognac, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 14,189 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

A Wine Jelly for Invalids

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine the juice of 2 oranges, peel of 1 orange, 4 egg yolks, 1 ounce of isinglass, ½ pint of sherry, ⅓ cup of cognac, 10 cloves, a little cinnamon, and 2 tablespoons of sugar in a stewpan.

  2. Stir well and bring to a boil, then remove from heat for 5 minutes.

  3. Add 2 tablespoons of cold water and strain through a jelly bag.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Orange + cinnamontop 3% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

  4. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Orange + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together823 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,779 recipes mention both: they likely 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 jelly as it cools.
Egg yolks
Add richness and body, and help clarify and thicken the mixture.
Sherry or white wine
Provides the main liquid and a wine flavour for the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the orange juice and wine.

The step that matters

Bringing to a boil, then resting off heat. Egg yolks can scramble or curdle if overheated, so the mixture should be brought just to a boil and then taken off the heat. Resting it off heat lets the egg and isinglass set the liquid gently without graininess.

Flavor stand-ins for the orange

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

  1. Vanillabetter flavor fit
  2. Figbetter flavor fit
  3. Appleabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sherry, clove, cinnamon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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