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Dessert

Strawberry Jelly

A jelly made from strawberries, powdered sugar, isinglass, water, red currant juice, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 18% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the syrup

  1. Strew the powdered sugar over the strawberries and let them stand for several hours.

  2. Dissolve the isinglass in a covered pan with the water over low heat, then remove from heat as soon as dissolved.

  3. Let the isinglass cool, then drain the syrup from the strawberries.

Make the jelly

  1. Add the red-currant juice and lemon juice to the syrup, then stir in the dissolved isinglass.

  2. Simmer the mixture over low heat for five minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture through a thick muslin strainer two or three times until clear, then fill the molds.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Currant + lemontop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,270 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  3. Sugar + curranttop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

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
Sets the liquid into a firm, tender jelly as it cools.
Powdered sugar
Draws juice out of the strawberries and sweetens the jelly.
Fresh strawberries
Provide the main flavour and colour of the jelly.
Red-currant juice
Adds tartness and extra fruit flavour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Dissolve the isinglass gently. Isinglass is a collagen-based gelatine that can be damaged by strong heat or prolonged boiling, which weakens its setting power. Keeping the heat low and removing the pan as soon as it dissolves protects its gelling strength.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Vanillafits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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