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Dessert

Maraschino Jelly

A clear, lemon-flavored jelly made with maraschino liqueur, gelatin, sugar, and egg shells, garnished with silver leaf.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and lemon 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 ↓

Maraschino Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the jelly

  1. Crush the egg shells.

  2. Beat the crushed shells with a little water in a saucepan.

  3. Add water, sugar, and gelatine.

  4. Heat gently and stir until boiling.

  5. Cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.

  6. Strain through a jelly bag with hot water until clear.

  7. Warm the maraschino.

  8. Mix the warmed maraschino with the jelly.

  9. Strain again if needed.

Layer and set in the mold

  1. Pour 1 inch of jelly into a mold.

  2. Sprinkle some silver leaf.

  3. Let it set.

  4. Pour in another inch of cold jelly.

  5. Add more silver leaf.

  6. Let it set.

  7. Whip about 3 tablespoons of jelly until frothy.

  8. Add a little silver leaf.

  9. Pour into the mold.

  10. Fill the mold with clear jelly.

  11. Add more silver leaf.

  12. Dip the mold in warm water.

  13. Turn it out quickly.

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. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  2. Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together44,316 recipes

    Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).

  3. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Egg whites and shells
Whites and shells are beaten into the liquid, where they help collect impurities so the jelly strains clear.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly that holds its shape when turned out.
Lump sugar
Sweetens the jelly and helps give it body as it dissolves.
Maraschino
Adds liqueur flavour and aroma to the finished jelly.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the flavour and balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Strain until clear. Straining through a jelly bag with hot water removes the cloudy particles the egg shells and whites have gathered. Skipping or rushing this leaves the jelly cloudy rather than clear.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Lemonthe original
  4. Datesfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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