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Dessert

Claret Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from claret, lemon juice, spices, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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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 ↓

Claret Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan.

  2. Whisk over heat until boiling.

  3. Remove from heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture.

Set and serve

  1. Add a few drops of cochineal for color.

  2. Set in a mold and refrigerate until firm.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

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

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

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

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Clove + red curranttop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together128 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl benzoate (fruity, 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Clarify the liquid, collecting sediment so the jelly becomes clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon and claret.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Claret
Provides the main wine flavor and the red color of the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture. Egg white clarification leaves particles that must be removed through straining, which gives a clear jelly. Rushing this step or skipping it leaves the jelly cloudy and gritty.

Swap the red currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Red currantthe original

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