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Dessert

Punch Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with sugar, lemon juice, rum, wine, brandy, and isinglass.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Rum and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,058 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Punch Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in ½ cup of water with a little sugar and lemon peel, cleared with the white of an egg.

  2. Boil the ½ pound of sugar in a small teacup of water until it reaches candy height.

  3. Boil the lemon peel in a little water.

Make the jelly

  1. In a basin, combine the rum and syrup, then mix in the brandy, wine, lemon juice, and the water from boiling the peel.

  2. Mix all well and add the dissolved isinglass.

  3. Pour the mixture into a mold.

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. Rum + brandytop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,058 recipes

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

  2. Wine + brandytop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  3. Rum + winetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together230 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methoxy-4-propylphenol (allspice, anise).

  4. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  5. Sugar + rumtop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,908 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Sweetens the punch and forms the syrup that balances the alcohol and acid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and the spirits.
Rum
Adds aroma and flavour while the alcohol helps keep the jelly soft.
Brandy
Adds warm, fruity flavour and aroma to the punch.

The step that matters

Add the dissolved isinglass to the mixture. Isinglass is a gelatine-like setting agent. It must be fully dissolved and well mixed through the warm liquid before pouring, or the jelly will set unevenly with clumps or weak patches.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, rum, wine, brandy. 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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