Why it works: Cinnamon and clove 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 ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Combine lemon rinds, water, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon, cloves, gelatin, and egg whites with shells in a saucepan.
Whisk over medium heat until it boils, then stop whisking.
Move the pan to the side of the heat and let it sit until the scum cracks across the top.
Strain
Scald a clean tea cloth and tie it to the legs of a stool upside down.
Pour the jelly through the cloth into a basin.
If the jelly is not clear, pour it through the cloth again.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
Sugar and cinnamon 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
- Gelatin
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Egg whites and shells
- Bind to impurities as they heat, collecting cloudiness so the jelly can be strained clear.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity and main lemon flavour.
The step that matters
Stop whisking once it boils. Continued whisking breaks up the forming egg white raft that traps cloudy particles. Leaving it undisturbed lets the scum rise and crack across the top, so the strained jelly comes out clear.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, clove, gelatin, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove, gelatin, egg. 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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