Why it works: Egg and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Jelly Mould
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Combine egg whites and sugar in a pot.
Add water and bring to a boil.
Simmer for 15 minutes without stirring.
Remove from heat and let it stand for 15 minutes.
Strain through a jelly bag until clear.
Set and chill
Pour into molds and refrigerate overnight.
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.
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Egg + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites
- Coagulate as they heat, trapping impurities so the liquid can be strained clear.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps give it a smooth, clear texture.
- Water
- Dissolves the sugar and forms the liquid base that will set.
The step that matters
Simmer without stirring. Stirring during the simmer can break up the coagulating egg white and cloud the liquid. Leaving it undisturbed lets the whites form a raft that traps impurities, so the strained jelly comes out clear.
“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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