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Dessert

Isinglass Jelly

A clear jelly made with isinglass, lemon, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, sherry, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and cinnamon 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 ↓

Isinglass Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquid

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in 2 cups of cold water.

  2. Add the lemon rind, lemon juice, cloves, cinnamon, sugar, and sherry.

Clarify

  1. Stir over low heat and add the egg whites and shells.

  2. Whisk until it boils, then let it stand for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain through muslin until clear.

Set the jelly

  1. Pour into a mold filled with cold water, drained but not dried, and place in a cool area to 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.

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. Clove + cinnamontop 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 + sherrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,237 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

Isinglass
Forms a gel as it cools, so the liquid sets into a firm jelly.
Egg whites and shells
Clarify the liquid as they cook, trapping particles so it strains clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and bright aroma from the rind and juice.
Sherry
Adds flavour and aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Whisk to the boil, then let it stand before straining. Egg whites must be brought to a boil so they coagulate and trap impurities. Letting it stand lets those particles settle, so straining through muslin yields a clear jelly rather than a cloudy one.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, cinnamon, sugar, sherry, 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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