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Dessert

Jelly

A lemon liquor jelly flavored with cinnamon, cloves, saffron, and egg whites, set with sherry and rum.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the liquor

  1. Remove all fat from the liquor and wipe the top with a clean cloth.

Make the jelly

  1. In a clean saucepan, combine the liquor, lemon rind, cinnamon, cloves, salt, saffron, and sugar.

  2. Beat the egg whites with the shells and stir into the mixture.

  3. Bring to a boil while stirring continuously until the egg whites set on top.

  4. Remove from heat and add sherry, rum, and strained lemon juice.

  5. Cover and let it sit by the fire to prevent evaporation.

Strain and chill

  1. Prepare a jelly bag or a flannel cloth rinsed in boiling water.

  2. Strain the jelly into a rinsed cold mold.

  3. Chill in a very cold place or in ice for an hour before serving.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + saffrontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together538 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Cinnamon + saffrontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together406 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Sherry + rumtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together146 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Clove + saffrontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together455 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

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

What each ingredient does

Egg whites
Bind impurities into a crust during boiling, clarifying the jelly to a clear finish.
Loaf sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the jelly and helps it set firm when chilled.
Lemon rind
Contributes aromatic oils that flavour the jelly, with the white pith avoided for bitterness.
Sherry
Adds depth and aroma while contributing to the liquid base of the jelly.
Rum
Adds aroma and alcoholic character to the finished jelly.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil while stirring continuously. Stirring keeps the egg whites from clumping and sinking so they can rise and set on top. Their proteins trap sediment, so the jelly clears when strained.

Swap the saffron

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, cinnamon, clove, sugar, egg, sherry, rum):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Allspicefits better
  3. Cardamomfits better
  4. Saffronthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, cinnamon, clove, sugar, egg, sherry, rum. 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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