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Strengthening Jelly

A medicinal jelly made with gum arabic, nutmeg, wine, and meat stock.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 22 ingredients
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Strengthening Jelly

Why it works: Port wine and sherry match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 132 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Strengthening Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Dissolve gum arabic, grated nutmeg, sugar, port wine, isinglass, and white wine in a jar over warm water, stirring constantly until dissolved.

  2. Let the mixture cool to form a firm jelly.

Make the jelly

  1. Combine orange juice, orange peel, egg yolks, isinglass, sherry, cognac, cloves, cinnamon, and sugar in a stewpan.

  2. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat for 5 minutes and add cold water.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag.

Prepare the stocks

  1. Boil veal in milk until reduced to half, flavor with mace or nutmeg, and add salt when done.

  2. Mince mutton or beef and simmer with water for 3 hours until reduced to 1 quart.

  3. Add salt and desired flavorings, then strain 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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Port wine + sherrytop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together132 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Nutmeg + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,686 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. White wine + sherrytop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together307 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

  4. Port wine + white winetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together55 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Orange + clovetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,987 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl octanoate (fruity, wine).

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

What each ingredient does

Isinglass
Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Egg yolks
Thicken the mixture and add richness and body.
Gum arabic
Adds body and helps keep the jelly smooth and stable.
Orange juice
Contributes acidity and bright flavor to the jelly.
Port wine
Adds sweetness, depth and colour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Egg yolks can curdle or scramble if overheated, so the heat must be lowered once the mixture boils to keep it smooth and thickened.

Swap the orange

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (nutmeg, sugar, port wine, white wine, egg, sherry, clove):

  1. Figfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Orangethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against nutmeg, sugar, port wine, white wine, egg, sherry, clove. 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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