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Dessert

Lemonade Jelly

A gelatin dessert made with sliced lemons, oranges, boiling water, gelatine, sugar, and wine.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and orange match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,634 recipes. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

Lemonade Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Slice the lemons and oranges very thinly.

  2. Pour boiling water over the sliced fruit and cover for 30 minutes.

Make the jelly

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water until soft.

  2. In a porcelain-lined saucepan, combine the soaked gelatine and the fruit mixture.

  3. Simmer for 15 minutes.

  4. Stir in the sugar and wine.

  5. Let it simmer for 2 more minutes.

  6. Strain the mixture.

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

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

  2. Lemon + winetop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together6,157 recipes

    Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).

  3. Orange + winetop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,046 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

  5. Orange + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together19,212 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly jelly as it cools.
Lemons
Provide the sharp acidity and fresh flavour that define the jelly.
Oranges
Add sweetness and aroma alongside the lemon flavour.
Wine
Adds depth of flavour and aroma to the jelly.

The step that matters

Strain the mixture. Straining after simmering removes the fruit and pulp so the jelly sets clear. Gelatine only sets well when fully dissolved, so the mixture should be hot and smooth before it is poured out.

“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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