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Dessert

Clear Jelly, Ornamented or Plain

A clear jelly made with citrus, wine, brandy, and spices, set with isinglass and eggs.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
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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 ↓

Clear Jelly, Ornamented or Plain

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the stock

  1. Put the jelly stock in a saucepan. Add isinglass, cinnamon, cloves, and coriander seeds.

  2. Heat until melted, then remove from heat.

Add the citrus and wine

  1. Juice the lemons and oranges, adding the peels to a bowl with rubbed sugar. Mix in the Lisbon wine and brandy.

Clarify and strain

  1. Beat the eggs (whites and yolks) together and add to the jelly stock. Sweeten to taste, then whisk and heat until boiling.

  2. Simmer for 5 minutes, then cover and let sit with charcoal for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain through a jelly bag until clear.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Coriander + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Cinnamon + coriandertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,635 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

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

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Whites trap impurities as they set, helping the jelly clarify when strained.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like agent that sets the liquid into a firm jelly.
Seville oranges
Supply acidity and bitter aromatic flavour from juice and peel.
Lemons
Add acidity and bright citrus flavour from juice and peel.

The step that matters

Beating the eggs into the stock and heating to boiling. Egg whites must be evenly mixed in before heating so they can coagulate and collect impurities. Heating then rises through the stock, and the whites form a raft that filters cloudiness when strained. Stirring too early or too little can leave the jelly cloudy.

Swap the coriander

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (cinnamon, clove, lemon, orange, wine, brandy, egg):

  1. Nutmegfits better
  2. Cardamomfits better
  3. Allspicefits better
  4. Corianderthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against cinnamon, clove, lemon, orange, wine, brandy, 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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