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Dessert

Claret Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from claret wine, water, lemon juice, lemon rind, sugar, gelatin, egg whites, and cochineal.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Claret Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine all ingredients in a saucepan and whisk over heat until boiling, then simmer for about 10 minutes.

  2. Strain through a scalded bag or cloth.

  3. Add a few drops of cochineal to enhance the color.

Set and serve

  1. Pour into a wet mold 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. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Eggs
Whites and shells bind particles during heating, so the strained jelly comes out clear.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour of the claret.
Claret
Provides the main wine flavour and the deep red colour.

The step that matters

Strain through a scalded bag or cloth. Egg whites coagulate as the mixture heats and trap impurities; straining through a clean, scalded cloth removes them, so the jelly stays clear and bright rather than cloudy.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, 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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