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Dessert

Punch Jelly

A gelatinous punch made with rum, sherry, kirsch, lemon, cinnamon, coriander, and egg.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and coriander match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,498 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Punch Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the water and sugar in a saucepan.

  2. Boil until a syrup forms.

  3. Add the finely grated rind of the lemons and the softened gelatine.

  4. Stir until the gelatine dissolves.

Flavour and clarify

  1. Stir in the lemon juice, rum, sherry, kirsch, cinnamon, and coriander seeds.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Let the mixture cool.

  4. Beat the egg white and yolk.

  5. Add the beaten egg to the mixture when it is cool.

  6. Whisk the mixture over the fire until it boils again.

  7. Simmer gently for 10 minutes.

  8. Strain the mixture through a hot jelly bag or cloth until clear.

Set

  1. Pour the clear mixture into a mold that has been rinsed with cold water.

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. Lemon + coriandertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Rum + sherrytop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Eggs
Egg white is whisked through the cooled mixture and then clarifies it as it boils and is strained.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the punch and, dissolved in water, forms the syrup base.
Rum
Adds spirited flavour and aroma to the jelly.
Lemons
Provide acidity and fragrant oils from the rind and juice.

The step that matters

Straining until clear. Egg white and any remaining solids must be fully removed to leave a clear jelly. Straining through a hot jelly bag lets the liquid run through while the coagulated egg and sediment stay behind, so the jelly looks bright rather than cloudy.

Swap the coriander

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

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against rum, sherry, sugar, lemon, egg, cinnamon. 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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