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Dessert

Cider Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with cider, lemon, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Cider Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Combine gelatin, grated lemon rind, lemon juice, and 1 pint cold water in a bowl.

  2. Let the mixture stand for 1 hour.

  3. Add 2.5 pounds loaf sugar and 3 pints boiling water to the mixture, and stir until the sugar dissolves.

  4. Mix in 1 pint cider.

  5. Pour the mixture into molds and set in a cool place to set.

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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  3. Lemon + cidertop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together986 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  4. Gelatin + lemontop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

  5. Sugar + cidertop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,308 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the jelly and adds body to the set.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavor and balances the sugar.
Cider
Provides the main apple flavor of the jelly.

The step that matters

Let the mixture stand before adding the sugar and boiling water. Standing lets the gelatin soften and hydrate fully in the cold water. Gelatin that is not hydrated first can clump or set unevenly once the hot liquid is added.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, sugar, cider. 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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