Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓
Lemon Jelly.
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Peel the lemons very thin and cut them in half.
Squeeze out the juice and strain it into a saucepan.
Add sugar, cinnamon, cloves, saffron, egg whites, and shells to the saucepan.
Mix all ingredients with a fork or whisk.
Add hot water and gelatin to the saucepan.
Place the saucepan on the stove.
Bring the mixture to a boil.
Clarify and set
Strain the boiling mixture through a warmed jelly bag.
Check if the jelly is clear.
If the jelly is not clear, strain again until it is clear.
Let the jelly cool slightly.
Add liqueur syrup to the cooled jelly.
Pour the jelly into molds.
Place the molds in a cool area to set.
Unmold and serve
Once set, dip the mold in warm water.
Dry the bottom of the mold.
Turn out the jelly onto a serving dish.
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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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together538 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
-
Cinnamon + saffrontop 3% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together406 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Clove + saffrontop 5% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together455 recipes
Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Egg whites and shells
- Bind impurities so they can be strained out, leaving the jelly clear.
- Gelatin
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemons
- Provide the acidic citrus flavor and juice that form the base of the jelly.
The step that matters
Strain until clear. Egg whites bind cloudy particles as the mixture boils, and straining through a warmed jelly bag removes them. Rushing this step leaves the jelly cloudy and less appealing.
Swap the saffron
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, cinnamon, clove, egg, gelatin, wine):
- Nutmegfits better
- Cardamomfits better
- Allspicefits better
- Saffronthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, cinnamon, clove, egg, gelatin, 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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