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 ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the syrup
In a clean saucepan, combine 1½ pints of water, juice of 6 lemons, and the rinds of 2 lemons, peeled thinly.
Add sugar, cinnamon, cloves, and gelatine to the saucepan.
Heat on the gas stove, stirring with a wooden spoon until the gelatine melts.
Clarify
Add crushed eggshells and the whites of the eggs, half whipped.
Whisk the mixture until it boils, then stop whisking and let the scum rise to the top.
Turn off the heat and let it sit for 20 minutes to allow the scum to harden.
Strain and set
Prepare a clean cloth over the legs of an upside-down chair and pour boiling water through it to heat the cloth.
Strain the jelly through the cloth into a basin, changing basins three times for clarity.
Rinse the mould with boiling water, then cold water, and leave it wet.
Pour the jelly into the mould when it is nearly cold.
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.
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Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together14,189 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together7,950 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).
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Lemon + clovetop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together8,150 recipes
Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).
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Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together30,779 recipes
Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).
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Lemon + sugartop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 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
- Eggs
- Whites trap scum and impurities as they cook, clarifying the jelly into a clear liquid.
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
- Lemons
- Provide the acidity and bright flavour, with rinds adding aromatic oils.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Letting the scum rise and harden. Boiling then stopping the whisk lets egg white coagulate and carry impurities to the surface. Stirring it back in would cloud the jelly, so the rest period must be left undisturbed.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, clove, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Figfits about as well
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove, 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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