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Dessert

Isinglass Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made by boiling water with isinglass, lemon peel, cloves, sugar, and brandy.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Lemon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 8,150 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Isinglass Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Boil 2 quarts of water with ¼ pound of isinglass.

  2. Place lemon peel in a basin and strain the liquid over it.

  3. Add 4 cloves and ½ pound of sugar.

  4. Let it sit in a warm place for at least 1 hour.

  5. Remove the lemon peel and cloves, then stir in ⅓ cup of brandy.

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 + clovetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together8,150 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Clove + brandytop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together2,362 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  4. Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together11,939 recipes

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

  5. Lemon + brandytop 23% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together5,351 recipes

    Shared aroma: linalool (floral, citrus).

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

Isinglass
Gelatinous protein that sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the jelly.
Brandy
Adds aroma and flavour to the finished jelly.
Lemon peel
Infuses bright citrus aroma into the warm liquid.
Cloves
Infuse warm spice aroma into the liquid.

The step that matters

Strain the liquid over the lemon peel. Isinglass sets only when the liquid is properly dissolved and clear; straining removes any undissolved particles so the jelly sets smooth and clear rather than cloudy or grainy.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Figfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against clove, sugar, brandy. 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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