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Coffee Jelly

A chilled coffee gelatin dessert topped with whipped cream and cherries.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Coffee Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Make the coffee and strain it through a muslin into a saucepan.

  2. Add the gelatine cut into small pieces and stir until it dissolves.

  3. Add the sugar and vanilla essence.

  4. Strain into a basin.

  5. Set aside until almost cold.

  6. Pour into a wet border mould.

  7. Leave until firm.

  8. Turn out the jelly.

Finish and decorate

  1. Whip the cream until stiff.

  2. Flavour the whipped cream.

  3. Pile the whipped cream in the centre of the mould.

  4. Decorate with cherries cut in quarters.

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. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

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

  2. Coffee + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,391 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  4. Vanilla + creamtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,301 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

  5. Coffee + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,339 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptanol (bitter, floral).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 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

Gelatine
Sets the coffee liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly.
Cream
Whipped to stiff peaks, it adds a light, rich contrast to the firm jelly.
Sugar
Sweetens the bitter coffee to balance its flavour.

The step that matters

Strain into a basin and let it cool until almost cold. Gelatine sets as it cools, so pouring while still hot can leave the jelly too soft to hold its shape. Cooling it nearly to setting point before pouring into the mould gives a firm, clean-edged result.

“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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