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Dessert

Mould of Apple Jelly

A molded dessert made from apples, sugar, water, lemon, gelatin, and optional cochineal coloring, served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Mould of Apple Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the apple mixture

  1. In a pan, combine the apples, sugar, water, lemon rind, and lemon juice.

  2. Cook until the apples are soft and pulpy, then strain the mixture.

  3. Dissolve the gelatine in ¼ cup of water and stir it into the apple mixture.

  4. Color half of the apple mixture with cochineal.

Set and serve

  1. Fill a mold with alternating layers of colored and uncolored apple mixture.

  2. Refrigerate until set, then unmold.

  3. Serve with whipped cream.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  3. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

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

  4. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

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

  5. Apple + creamtop 27% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together3,089 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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 strained apple liquid into a firm, sliceable gel when chilled.
Apples
Provide the main flavor and body, cooked to a soft pulp that gives the gel its base.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the tartness of the apples and lemon.
Lemon
Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the sweet apple flavor.

The step that matters

Refrigerate until set, then unmold. Gelatine needs to chill undisturbed for the gel to firm fully; unmolding too early can cause the layers to collapse or tear. Gelatine's setting depends on cooling, so the mold must stay cold until firm.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar, cream):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Strawberryfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, sugar, cream. 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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