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Dessert

Claret Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made with claret, raspberry or currant jelly, lemon, brandy, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Claret Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the gelatine in a little cold water.

Make the jelly

  1. In a saucepan, combine the dissolved gelatine with claret, jelly, lemon juice, and lemon rind.

  2. Stir over low heat until nearly boiling, but do not boil.

  3. Strain the mixture through muslin.

  4. When nearly cold, add the brandy and pour into a mold.

Serve

  1. Serve with custard or whipped cream.

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. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Raspberry + brandytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together235 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-hex-3-en-1-ol (freshly cut grass green and herbaceous notes).

  3. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  4. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Raspberry + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,101 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 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 liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Claret
Provides the wine flavour and deep colour of the jelly.
Raspberry or currant jelly
Adds fruity sweetness and body to the wine base.
Brandy
Adds aroma and warmth, added late so its scent is not lost to heat.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweet wine and balances the flavour.

The step that matters

Stir over low heat until nearly boiling, but do not boil. Gelatine needs gentle heat to dissolve fully; boiling can weaken its setting power and cloud the jelly, while the brandy is added only when nearly cold to preserve its aroma.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (raspberry, brandy, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Peachfits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against raspberry, brandy, sugar. 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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