Name: Lemon Jelly
Ingredients: 1 ounce isinglass; 1½ pounds loaf sugar; 3 lemons, pulp and juice, grated; 1 quart boiling water; ⅓ cup wine; tartaric acid (optional)

Why it works: Lemon and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓

Lemon Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Soak the isinglass in 1 quart of boiling water.
Add the grated lemon pulp and juice, and the loaf sugar.
Mix well and strain the mixture.
Stir in the wine.
If lemons are not fresh, add a little tartaric acid.
Pour into a mold and let it cool.

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.

Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together6,157 recipes

Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

Isinglass: Gelatin-like protein that sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Loaf sugar: Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.
Lemons: Provide the main flavor and acidity of the jelly.
Wine: Adds aroma and flavor to the liquid.