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Dessert

Gelatine Jelly

A gelatin-based jelly made with water, sugar, lemon peel, egg whites, egg shells, wine, and boiled gelatin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Gelatine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the base

  1. Soak 1½ oz. of Gelatine in 1 quart of water and boil to reduce by half.

  2. Strain through a jelly bag into a mold and let it cool.

  3. Add sugar and thinly pared lemon peel to taste.

Clarify

  1. In a separate pot, combine the Gelatine mixture with the beaten egg whites and shells.

  2. Bring to a boil without stirring, then remove from heat.

  3. Add 1 tablespoon of cold water and let it stand for 5-10 minutes.

  4. Strain again through a jelly bag until clear.

Finish and serve

  1. Mix in 1 gill of wine and let it cool before pouring into a mold.

  2. Once set, turn out and serve.

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 + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

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

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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 sets the jelly firm as it cools.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated and trap cloudy particles, so straining leaves the jelly clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the flavour of the jelly.
Lemon peel
Adds a bright citrus aroma to the jelly.
Wine
Adds flavour and a little acidity to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Boil the egg white mixture without stirring. As the egg whites heat, they coagulate and rise, trapping cloudy particles. Stirring breaks up this raft and clouds the jelly, so the strained result will not be clear.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits about as well
  2. Lemonthe original
  3. Applefits about as well
  4. Figfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg, wine. 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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