Why it works: Wine and corn work together. They rank in the top 26% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 366 recipes. Both carry hexanal, which smells green, grassy. The science ↓
Jelly Sauce
Ingredients
Directions
Dissolve the corn starch in the water or wine.
Add the mixture to the fruit jelly and bring to a boil.
Keep the sauce warm in a dish of hot water until serving, stirring occasionally.
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.
-
Wine + corntop 26% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together366 recipes
Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Corn starch
- Thickens the sauce as it heats, giving it body and a glossy, spoonable texture.
- Fruit jelly
- Provides the sweetness, fruit flavor and gel structure that the sauce is built around.
- Water or wine
- Dissolves the corn starch so it blends evenly into the jelly without lumps.
The step that matters
Bringing the mixture to a boil. Cornstarch only thickens fully once it reaches a boil, so the sauce must be brought up to a boil and kept there briefly. Stirring while it heats keeps the starch dispersed and prevents lumps or scorching on the bottom of the pan.
“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.
More jelly sauce recipes
You might also like
Corn Cake90 recipes
Corn Starch Cake89 recipes
Corn Cakes22 recipes
Green Corn Pudding14 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.