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Dessert

Blackberry Jelly

A preserved fruit spread made from blackberries, sugar, lemon peel, and gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Blackberry Jelly

Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Blackberry Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in ½ cup of water for several hours.

  2. Boil the blackberries with the sugar and lemon peel.

  3. Strain the mixture through a sieve.

Make the jelly

  1. Add the blackberry juice to the gelatine and water.

  2. Boil for 10 minutes, then strain again.

Set

  1. Pour into a mould and refrigerate until set.

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

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

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
Forms the gel network that makes the jelly set firm when chilled.
Blackberries
Provide the fruit flavour and deep colour of the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the blackberries.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright aroma that lifts the blackberry flavour.

The step that matters

Boil for 10 minutes, then strain again. Gelatine is dissolved before this step, and prolonged boiling can weaken its gelling power. Keep the boil short so the jelly sets properly when chilled.

“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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