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Dessert

Brandy Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with brandy, sugar, lemon, egg whites, and spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Clove and mace are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,400 recipes. Both carry methyleugenol, which smells clove, spice. The science ↓

Brandy Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Combine all ingredients except the brandy in a saucepan.

  2. Whisk gently until just boiling, then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag until clear.

Set

  1. Stir in the brandy and pour into a prepared 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. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  2. Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Brandy + clovetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Brandy + eggtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,340 recipes

    Shared aroma: acetoin (butter, cream).

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

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

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

Egg whites
Whipped whites clarify the liquid as they cook and trap foam that is then strained out.
Leaf gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Brandy
Adds its own flavour and alcohol to the jelly, stirred in after straining.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and adds body to the liquid.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness of the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain through a jelly bag until clear. Straining must be done slowly and without squeezing the bag, because pressing forces cloudy particles through and leaves the jelly murky. Clarity depends on letting the liquid drip naturally.

Swap the mace

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, lemon, egg, clove. 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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