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Dessert

Arrowroot Wine Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made with arrowroot, sugar, wine, and boiling water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Arrowroot and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,073 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓

Arrowroot Wine Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. In a bowl, mix the arrowroot and sugar.

  2. Pour the boiling water over the mixture and stir until dissolved.

  3. Add the wine and mix well.

  4. Let it cool and set before serving.

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. Arrowroot + sugartop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,073 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  2. Arrowroot + winetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together153 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-methylbutyraldehyde (malty, chocolate).

  3. Sugar + winetop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together9,581 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Arrowroot
Thickens the liquid into a clear, glossy gel as it cools.
Wine
Adds flavour and acidity to the jelly.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the wine's tartness.

The step that matters

Pour the boiling water over the arrowroot and sugar. Arrowroot thickens only when it is heated in liquid and its starch swells. Stirring it into the boiling water while it is still hot helps it dissolve evenly and prevents lumps, so the jelly sets smooth.

Swap the arrowroot

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

  1. Capsicumfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Shallotfits about as well
  4. Arrowrootthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, wine. 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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