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Dessert

Russian Jelly

A clear lemon jelly flavored with cloves, cinnamon, brandy, and sherry, set with gelatin.

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 cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Russian Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the lemons

  1. Pare the lemons very thinly, squeeze out the juice, and strain it.

Make the jelly

  1. In a large bright or enamelled saucepan, combine the lemon peel, juice, sugar, cloves, cinnamon, and egg whites and shells.

  2. Whisk everything together.

  3. Add the gelatine and 2 quarts of warm water.

  4. Place the pan over the fire and whisk until it comes to a boil.

  5. Simmer for 5 minutes, then remove from heat.

Strain and clarify

  1. Hang a jelly bag.

  2. Pour about 2 quarts of boiling water through it.

  3. After 10 minutes off the fire, strain the jelly through the bag.

  4. Repeat straining two more times to ensure the jelly is bright and clear.

  5. Set aside to cool slightly, but do not let it set.

Flavour, mould and whip

  1. Line two moulds with the clear jelly.

  2. Divide the remaining jelly into two parts.

  3. Add ⅓ cup of brandy to one half.

  4. Add ⅓ cup of sherry and a few drops of carmine to the other half.

  5. Whip each jelly over ice until frothy and spongy.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Brandy + sherrytop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,209 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

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

  4. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Cinnamon + sugartop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Cinnamon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Egg whites and shells
Bind impurities and clarify the jelly, leaving it bright and clear.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar
Provides sweetness and body to the jelly.
Lemons
Supply the main acidity and aroma of the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the jelly until bright and clear. Egg whites collect cloudy particles as they cook, and the jelly only turns clear when those particles are caught by repeated straining through the bag. Rushing this leaves the jelly cloudy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

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