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Dessert

Maraschino Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with calf’s-foot jelly, maraschino, brandy, isinglass, lime juice, sugar, and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Brandy and wine are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,427 recipes. Both carry gamma-nonanolactone, which smells coconut, sweet. The science ↓

Maraschino Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Prepare 1 quart of firm calf’s-foot jelly and melt it.

  2. Add 6 liqueur glasses of maraschino and 2 liqueur glasses of brandy.

  3. Dissolve 1.5 ounces of isinglass in 1 pint of water.

  4. Mix in the juice of 3 large limes and ½ pound of sugar.

Strain and set

  1. Strain through a napkin or jelly bag.

  2. Add 2 wine glasses of water along with the maraschino and brandy.

  3. When the mixture is partly cold, pour it into a mold and set it in ice.

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. Brandy + winetop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,427 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  2. Brandy + sugartop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. Lime + winetop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together438 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  4. Brandy + limetop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together165 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

  5. Lime + sugartop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Brandy and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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

Calf’s-foot jelly
Provides the gelatin base that gives the jelly its body and firm set.
Isinglass
Adds extra gelling strength so the jelly sets firmly when chilled.
Maraschino
Contributes the main cherry-like aroma and sweetness of the jelly.
Brandy
Adds aromatic depth and warmth to the flavor.
Lime juice
Brings acidity that brightens and balances the sweetness.
Sugar
Adds sweetness that rounds out the sharp lime and liqueurs.

The step that matters

Pour when the mixture is partly cold. Gelatin sets as it cools. Pouring while the mixture is still too hot can delay setting and cause a loose jelly, while waiting until it is fully cold can make it set unevenly in the mold. Partly cooled liquid fills the mold well and then firms evenly in the ice.

Swap the lime

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Limethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against brandy, sugar, wine. 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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