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Dessert

Ivory Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from ivory powder, water, sherbet, lemon, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and sugar 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 ↓

Ivory Jelly

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the base

  1. Combine ivory powder and water in a jar, cover, and place in a 350°F (175°C) oven until reduced by half.

  2. Strain the mixture and let it cool to set.

Finish the jelly

  1. Heat the mixture in a pan with sherbet, lemon rind, lemon juice, and sugar.

  2. Stir in the beaten egg whites and boil for 5 minutes.

  3. Strain through a flannel jelly-bag dipped in hot water and wrung dry.

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 + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Lemon and sugar 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

Ivory powder
Provides the gelling base that sets the jelly once cooled.
Whites of eggs
Clarify the jelly as they coagulate on boiling, trapping impurities for straining.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to balance the lemon's acidity.

The step that matters

Stir in the beaten egg whites and boil for 5 minutes. Egg whites must be stirred in evenly before boiling so they coagulate into a raft that traps cloudy particles. Boiling too gently or stirring unevenly leaves the jelly murky, and the straining step cannot fully clear it.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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