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 ↓
Cherry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the cherries
In a basin, mash the pitted cherries with a wooden spoon.
Squeeze the juice of the lemons through a silk sieve into the basin.
Pound the cherry stones in a mortar and add them to the mashed cherries.
Mix in the currant jelly, lemon juice, and pounded stones.
Make and strain the jelly
In a pot, boil the sugar and isinglass together for a few minutes, skimming well.
Place the cherries in a jelly bag and pour the sugar and isinglass mixture over them.
Run the mixture through the bag several times until clear; adjust sweetness with more sugar or acidity with more lemon if needed.
Set and serve
Wet your mold, set it in ice, and fill it with the jelly.
Leave it until just before serving to turn it out.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + curranttop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
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
- Dark red fleshy cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and body of the jelly.
- Isinglass
- Gelatine-like setting agent that firms the liquid into a jelly when chilled.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps give it a clear, firm set.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the cherry flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Currant jelly
- Adds extra pectin and fruit flavour to help the jelly hold its shape.
The step that matters
Straining until clear. Isinglass sets only when the liquid is free of pulp and cloudy solids, so the mixture must be run through the jelly bag repeatedly until it runs clear. Skimming the boiled sugar and isinglass removes impurities that would otherwise cloud the finished jelly.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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