Why it works: Rice and barley match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 3% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 568 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Gloucester Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Combine rice, sago, pearl-barley, hartshorn shavings, and eringo-root in a pot with 3 pints of water.
Simmer until the mixture thickens, then strain it.
Allow the jelly to cool.
Serve
Serve dissolved in wine, milk, or broth.
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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Rice + barleytop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together568 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
- Sago
- Thickens the liquid as it cooks, giving the jelly its body once cooled.
- Rice
- Adds starch that thickens the liquid and helps it set as it cools.
- Hartshorn shavings
- Gelling agent that sets the liquid into a firm jelly when cooled.
- Pearl-barley
- Adds starch that thickens the liquid during simmering.
- Eringo-root
- Flavours the jelly with its own aroma and contributes body to the set.
The step that matters
Simmer until the mixture thickens, then strain it. Starches such as rice, sago and barley must be cooked long enough to gelatinise fully, or the jelly stays thin and grainy. Straining removes solid pieces so the liquid sets clear and smooth.
“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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