Why it works: Sugar and rice are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,744 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓
Cranberry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
Stew the cranberries in a jar with their weight in sugar.
Press and strain the juice.
Add half the quantity of very stiff isinglass jelly or mix in ground rice gradually until thick.
Boil together until thickened.
Set and serve
Strain into a mold if using isinglass jelly, or pour directly into a mold if using ground rice.
Serve with cream or custard.
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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Sugar + ricetop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together8,744 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Cranberries
- Provide the tart flavour and the juice that forms the jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the tart cranberry juice and adds body to the jelly.
- Isinglass jelly
- Sets the juice into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Ground rice
- Thickens the juice as its starch swells when heated, giving a firm set.
The step that matters
Mixing in the ground rice. Ground rice must be stirred in gradually so its starch separates and does not form lumps. The starch then swells and thickens the juice when it boils.
“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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