Why it works: Port wine and red currant work together. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 118 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, pear. The science ↓
Port Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Cut the gelatine and soak it in the water.
Make the jelly
In a clean, well-tinned saucepan, combine the soaked gelatine, lemon juice, sugar, and red currant jelly.
Beat the egg white with the shell and add it to the saucepan.
Whisk the mixture over medium heat until the gelatine dissolves, then add the port wine.
Continue whisking until it reaches a boil, then reduce the heat to simmer gently without boiling.
Strain the mixture through a jelly bag or thin cloth.
For a deeper red color, add a few drops of cochineal before straining.
Set
Pour into one large or several small molds and place in a cool area to set.
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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Port wine + red curranttop 10% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together118 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Lemon + red curranttop 12% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together309 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and lemon 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
- French leaf gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
- Port wine
- Supplies the main flavor and color of the jelly.
- Egg white and shell
- Collects particles as it cooks, clarifying the jelly for a clear result.
- Loaf sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the acidity of the lemon and wine.
- Lemon juice
- Adds acidity that brightens the sweet port flavor.
The step that matters
Whisking to a boil, then simmering without boiling. Egg white clarifies the jelly only when it is heated gently and the mixture is not allowed to boil hard. Vigorous boiling can cloud the liquid and break down the gelatine's setting power, leaving a cloudy or softer jelly.
Swap the red currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (port wine, sugar, lemon, egg):
- Figfits better
- Orangefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Red currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against port wine, sugar, lemon, egg. 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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