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Dessert

Raspberry Spunge

A chilled raspberry sponge made with isinglass, cream, milk, raspberry jelly, and lemon juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Raspberry and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,109 recipes. Both carry alpha-pinene, which smells pine, turpentine. The science ↓

Raspberry Spunge

Ingredients

Directions

Make the sponge

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in a little water.

  2. Add the cream, new milk, raspberry jelly, and lemon juice.

  3. Whisk the mixture until it thickens and resembles sponge.

Set and serve

  1. Pour it into an earthenware mold.

  2. Refrigerate and turn it out the next day.

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. Raspberry + lemontop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-pinene (pine, turpentine).

  2. Milk + raspberrytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,014 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Milk + lemontop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,053 recipes

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

  4. Cream + raspberrytop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,332 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  5. Cream + milktop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together29,399 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Gelatin-like setting agent that firms the mixture so it holds its molded shape.
Cream
Adds fat and richness, giving a softer, smoother texture to the set sponge.
New milk
Adds liquid and dairy body, contributing to the creamy texture of the dessert.
Raspberry jelly
Provides sweetness, fruit flavour and colour to the sponge.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the raspberry flavour and balances sweetness.

The step that matters

Whisking until it resembles sponge. Whisking traps air into the mixture as it thickens, which gives the sponge its light texture. Under-whisking leaves it dense, and the isinglass must be fully dissolved first so the set is even.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cream, milk, raspberry):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Peachfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cream, milk, raspberry. 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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