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 ↓
Cherry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit and juice
Pit the cherries and place them in a basin.
Squeeze the juice of the lemons into a separate basin through a silk sieve.
Pound the cherry stones in a mortar.
Mash the cherries with a wooden spoon, then mix in the currant jelly, pounded stones, and lemon juice.
Make and strain the jelly
In a pot, boil the sugar and isinglass together for a few minutes, skimming well.
Place the cherries in a jelly bag and pour the sugar and isinglass mixture over them.
Run the mixture through the bag several times until clear.
If not sweet enough, add more sugar; if too acidic, add more lemon juice.
Set and unmold
Wet your mold, set it in ice, and fill it with the jelly.
Leave it until just before serving to unmold.
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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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + curranttop 20% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together4,270 recipes
Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).
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Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together12,256 recipes
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
- Dark red fleshy cherries
- Provide the main fruit flavour, colour and body of the jelly.
- Isinglass
- Gelling agent that sets the clarified liquid into a firm jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the gelatinous isinglass.
- Lemons
- Add acidity that brightens the cherry flavour and balances the sweetness.
- Currant jelly
- Adds extra pectin-rich body and a deeper fruity flavour to the mixture.
The step that matters
Straining until clear. Running the mixture through the jelly bag several times removes suspended pulp and solids, so the finished jelly sets clear and smooth rather than cloudy or grainy.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar):
- Orangefits better
- Limefits better
- Vanillafits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar. 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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