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Dessert

Cherry Jelly Cream

A chilled jelly dessert with a cherry cream filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Cream and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Cherry Jelly Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Dissolve the cherry jelly according to the package directions, using less water and replacing the rest with cherry brandy.

  2. Pour the mixture into a wet mold with a hollow center.

  3. Refrigerate the mold overnight.

Prepare the cherries and cream

  1. Cook the cherries with 3 ounces of sugar for 10 minutes in a saucepan.

  2. Let the cherries cool.

  3. Strain the syrup from the cherries.

  4. In a bowl, combine the cream, milk, and ½ cup of sugar, and beat until thick.

  5. Add a few drops of cochineal while beating to achieve a pale pink color.

  6. Mix the syrup into the cream.

Assemble and serve

  1. Dip the mold briefly in hot water.

  2. Invert the mold onto a plate.

  3. Fill the center of the jelly with the cherry cream mixture, piling it high.

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. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Cherry + cherry brandytop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together27 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Cherry + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together851 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,z)-2,6-nonadienal (cucumber, melon).

  4. Cream + cherry brandytop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together36 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

What each ingredient does

Cherry jelly
Sets into the firm base that holds the shape of the dessert.
Cream
Whips into a thick, rich filling that gives the dessert its body.
Castor sugar
Sweetens the cream and helps it hold its thickened texture when beaten.
Cherry brandy
Adds liquid and a boozy cherry aroma to the jelly.
Stoneless cherries
Provide fruit flavor and, once cooked, syrup that sweetens and flavors the cream.

The step that matters

Dip the mold briefly in hot water. A brief dip melts a thin layer of the jelly at the edges so it releases cleanly. Dipping too long can melt the jelly, causing it to lose its shape when inverted.

Swap the cherry

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Cherrythe original
  3. Raspberryfits about as well
  4. Strawberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, sugar, cherry brandy, milk. 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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