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Dessert

A Tansy

A jelly made from tansey leaves, lemon, sugar, eggs, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and 11,318 recipes mention both. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

The recipe

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Make the custard

  1. Beat the egg yolks and whites separately.

  2. Add the cream, spinach juice, tansey juice, white wine, and nutmeg to the eggs.

  3. In a saucepan, combine the mixture and heat just to thicken.

Make the jelly

  1. In another pot, boil the water with isinglass, lemon rind, and lump sugar for 30 minutes.

  2. Strain the mixture when nearly cold.

  3. Add the lemon juice and egg white.

  4. Whisk until the mixture is white and thick.

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 aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Nutmeg + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. White wine + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together3,764 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  3. Spinach + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  4. Spinach + nutmegtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together603 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  5. Cream + sugartop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together43,437 recipes

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

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Their proteins set when heated, thickening the custard and giving it body.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like protein that sets as the liquid cools, forming the jelly.
Cream
Adds fat for richness and a smoother, softer texture.
Lump sugar
Provides sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity and a bright, fresh flavor that cuts the richness.

The step that matters

Heating the custard just to thicken. Egg proteins coagulate when heated, so overheating will curdle the mixture into grainy lumps instead of a smooth, thickened custard. Heat gently and stop as soon as it thickens.

Flavor stand-ins for the spinach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, cream, white wine, nutmeg, biscuit, lemon, sugar):

  1. Asparagusabout as good a flavor fit
  2. Spinachthe original
  3. Potatoabout as good a flavor fit
  4. Sweet potatoabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, cream, white wine, nutmeg, biscuit, lemon, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).

“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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