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Rhubarb Isinglass Jelly

A jelly made from rhubarb juice, sugar, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Rhubarb and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,852 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Rhubarb Isinglass Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Wash and slice the rhubarb without peeling, removing any coarse or discolored parts.

  2. Combine the rhubarb and water in an enamelled stewpan.

  3. Add the sugar to the stewpan.

  4. Boil gently for 20 minutes until the rhubarb is stewed but not thickened.

  5. Strain the mixture through a muslin cloth folded in four to collect the juice.

  6. Measure 1 ½ pints of the rhubarb juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Heat the measured juice in a clean pan.

  2. Add the isinglass to the heated juice.

  3. Add the large lumps of sugar and stir until dissolved.

  4. Boil quickly for a few minutes to remove scum.

  5. Clear the scum off carefully.

  6. Strain the jelly twice through the muslin cloth.

  7. Let the jelly cool before molding.

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. Rhubarb + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,852 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Rhubarb
Provides the tart flavour and pink colour that define the jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and balances the rhubarb's sharp acidity.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the juice into a clear jelly as it cools.

The step that matters

Clearing the scum. Scum left in the juice clouds the jelly. A brief rapid boil lifts impurities to the surface so they can be skimmed off, and straining afterward removes what remains, keeping the jelly clear.

“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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