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Dessert

Rum Jelly

A sweet gelatin made with sugar, isinglass, water, white wine, and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: White wine and rum match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 113 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Rum Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Clarify and boil the sugar to make a syrup.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in the water.

Make the jelly

  1. Strain the isinglass mixture into the syrup when it is half warm.

  2. When nearly cold, stir in the white wine.

  3. Mix well and add the rum.

  4. Stir for a few minutes and pour into a mold or glasses.

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. White wine + rumtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together113 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

  3. Sugar + white winetop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 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

Loaf sugar
Forms the syrup base and provides the jelly's sweetness.
Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm gel as it cools.
White wine
Adds liquid volume and a light acidity that balances the sweetness.
Old jamaica rum
Adds a strong aroma and flavour to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Adding the wine when nearly cold. Isinglass sets as the mixture cools, so the liquid must not be too hot when the wine is added. Alcohol evaporates readily when hot, so adding wine and rum to a very warm syrup would lose much of their aroma and flavour.

“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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