Skip to main content
Dessert

Jelly a LA Fife

A lemon gelatin dessert flavored with brandy, sherry, and spices, set in a clear jelly.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Brandy and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and 1,209 recipes mention both. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Prepare the jelly

  1. Peel the lemons thinly and squeeze out the juice, straining it.

  2. In a large enamelled stewpan, combine the lemon peels, juice, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and beaten egg whites and shells.

  3. Whisk the mixture well, then add the gelatine and warm water.

  4. Heat over the fire, whisking until it boils, then simmer for five minutes and remove from heat.

Clarify and colour

  1. Hang a jelly bag and pour two quarts of boiling water through it.

  2. Strain the jelly until clear, then pour a little into two pipe moulds to line them.

  3. Divide the remaining jelly into two parts; mix one half with brandy and the other with sherry and carmine for color.

  4. Mix a few tablespoons of uncolored jelly with gold leaf, and do the same with the pink jelly and silver leaf.

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. Brandy + sherrytop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Cinnamon + sugartop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlaplow
    Mentioned together30,777 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Cinnamon + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Cinnamon + pistachiotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together201 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Lemon + pistachiotop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together431 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

Cinnamon and sugar share little aroma chemistry, yet 30,777 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

Egg whites
Bind impurities into a raft that clarifies the jelly, leaving it clear.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly once chilled.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and adds body to the set.
Lemons
Provide the acidic citrus flavour and juice that gives the jelly its character.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to one coloured portion of the jelly.
Sherry
Adds aroma and depth to the second coloured portion of the jelly.

The step that matters

Straining the jelly until clear. Egg white clarifies the jelly only if it is allowed to set into a raft that is not disturbed. Pouring or straining too roughly can push cloudy particles through, leaving the jelly hazy rather than bright and clear.

Flavor stand-ins for the pistachio

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

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Walnutbetter flavor fit
  3. Chestnutabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Pistachiothe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, sugar, egg, lemon, brandy, sherry, cream. 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.

You might also like

Illustration of Lemon CakeIllustrationLemon Cake228 recipesIllustration of Lemon IceIllustrationLemon Ice147 recipesIllustration of Lemon SherbetIllustrationLemon Sherbet103 recipesIllustration of Cinnamon RollsIllustrationCinnamon Rolls71 recipes