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Preserves, Jam, Jelly, Etc

A jelly made by boiling fruit juice with sugar, optionally thickened with isinglass and covered with brandy-wetted paper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Currant and brandy are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 3,057 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Preserves, Jam, Jelly, Etc

Ingredients

Directions

Boil the juice

  1. Set the fruit juice on the fire.

  2. Boil gently for 30 to 40 minutes, stirring and skimming until no more scum rises and it is clear.

Pot and cover

  1. Pour the jelly while warm into pots.

  2. Once cold, cover the pots with paper wetted in brandy.

Add isinglass

  1. Dissolve ½ ounce of isinglass in a little water.

  2. Strain the mixture.

  3. Add it to the juice with the sugar.

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. Currant + brandytop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,057 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  3. Currant + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together12,256 recipes

Sugar and brandy 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

Fruit juice
Forms the base of the jelly and supplies its flavour and colour.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the juice thicken into a firm, stable jelly.
Isinglass
Gelatin-like protein that sets the juice into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.

The step that matters

Boil gently and skim until clear. A gentle boil with steady skimming removes scum and keeps the jelly clear. Vigorous boiling can cloud the juice and spoil its appearance and texture.

Swap the currant

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Apricotfits better
  3. Raisinfits better
  4. Currantthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, brandy. 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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