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Dessert

Strawberry Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with strawberries, lemon, sugar, and egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Gelatin and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Strawberry Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the strawberry syrup

  1. Boil the water and sugar together to make a syrup, then pour it over the strawberries and let it sit for 30 minutes.

  2. Rub the mixture through a fine sieve into a quart-sized pan, then add the lemon juice.

  3. Beat the egg whites with a little of the syrup, then add to the pan with the other ingredients.

Clarify the jelly

  1. Whip gently until it comes to a boil, then cover and let it stand for 10 minutes.

  2. Pass a quart of boiling water through a jelly bag.

  3. Pour the jelly into the bag.

Set in a mold

  1. Pour about half an inch of jelly into a mold and decorate with strawberries.

  2. When set, fill the mold with the remaining jelly.

  3. Once firm, dip the mold in warm water and 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. Gelatin + sugartop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,778 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

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

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

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

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

  5. Lemon + gelatintop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,215 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-pinene (pine, resin).

Lemon and sugar 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

Strawberries
Provide the main fruit flavor and color of the jelly.
Gelatin
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Egg whites
Coagulate when heated and trap cloudy particles, leaving the jelly clear.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the strawberry flavor and balances the sugar.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps make the syrup that flavors the jelly.

The step that matters

Whip gently until it comes to a boil, then let it stand. Egg whites coagulate as they heat and bind cloudy particles to themselves. Whipping gently keeps the mixture from foaming over, and the rest lets the particles settle, so the jelly strains out clear.

Swap the lemon

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against gelatin, 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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