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Dessert

Milk Jelly

A set dessert made from milk, gelatine, sugar, eggs and lemon juice, poured into moulds.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Milk Jelly

Why it works: Milk and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,053 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Milk Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water overnight.

  2. Add the sugar to the soaked gelatine.

Make the mixture

  1. Pour boiling water over the mixture and stir well.

  2. Add the milk, beaten eggs, and lemon juice, stirring continuously.

Mould

  1. Pour the mixture into moulds.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Milk + eggtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together88,785 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Sugar + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together77,875 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  5. Egg + lemontop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid mixture into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Eggs
Add protein that thickens and enriches the mixture, giving body and a smooth richness.
Milk
Adds creaminess and richness, softening the sharpness of the lemon.
Moist sugar
Provides sweetness and adds moisture and depth of flavour.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Adding the milk, eggs and lemon juice. Lemon juice is acidic and can curdle milk, and eggs can scramble if they meet too much heat. Stirring continuously spreads the acid and heat evenly so the mixture stays smooth instead of separating into lumps.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits about as well
  3. Raisinfits about as well
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, milk, 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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