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 ↓
Jellies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Soak the gelatin in ½ pint of cold water with the finely shredded peel of 2 lemons for at least 1 hour.
Place the gelatin in a saucepan with ½ pint of boiling water.
Make the jelly
Stir until dissolved, then add ½ pound of sugar and stir until melted.
Incorporate the juice of the 2 lemons.
Add additional water if making plain lemon jelly.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it
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).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly when it cools.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
- Lemon juice
- Provides sharp acidity and the main lemon flavour.
- Lemon peel
- Infuses the liquid with aromatic lemon oils during soaking.
The step that matters
Dissolve the gelatine fully before adding sugar. Gelatine that is not completely dissolved in hot water will not set evenly, leaving grainy or weak patches in the finished jelly.
“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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