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Dessert

Another Way to Make Hartshorn Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from hartshorn shavings, water, isinglass, citrus, brandy, wine, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Another Way to Make Hartshorn Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil hartshorn shavings in water for 3½ hours.

  2. Strain through muslin.

  3. Stir in dissolved isinglass, lemon peel, lemon juice, orange peel, brandy, and white wine.

  4. Sweeten with pounded loaf sugar.

  5. When lukewarm, add beaten egg whites and stir.

  6. Boil for 2 minutes.

  7. Strain through a jelly bag 2-3 times until clear.

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 + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Brandy + white winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together620 recipes

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

  3. Lemon + white winetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,832 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Orange + white winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together730 recipes

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

  5. Orange + brandytop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,706 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Hartshorn shavings
Provide the gelling base that sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Isinglass
Adds extra gelatin for a firmer set and a clearer, more stable jelly.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities when boiled so they can be strained out, clarifying the jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth to the flavour of the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Adding the egg whites when lukewarm. Egg whites must be stirred in while the liquid is only lukewarm so they stay evenly dispersed; if the liquid is too hot they cook prematurely, and if too cold they won't mix in well. Boiling afterward coagulates the whites, which trap cloudy particles for straining.

Swap the orange

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

  1. Orangethe original
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Raspberryfits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, brandy, white wine, 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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