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Dessert

Orange Jelly

A gelatinous dessert made from orange juice, sugar, isinglass, egg whites, and served with cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 20% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,212 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Orange Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

  1. Cut the oranges into pieces and squeeze out all the juice until you have 1 cup.

  2. Add the sugar to the juice and heat until dissolved.

Set the jelly

  1. Dissolve the isinglass in the hot water and stir it into the juice.

  2. Add the well-beaten egg whites and boil steadily for 20 minutes.

  3. Strain slowly through a bag and mold.

Serve

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

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

  2. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

  3. Orange + eggtop 31% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together10,696 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

Orange and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 19,212 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
Gelling agent that sets the strained juice into a firm jelly.
Egg whites
Coagulate when boiled, collecting impurities so the jelly can be strained clear.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and body to the juice.
Oranges
Provide the main juice, giving flavor and acidity.

The step that matters

Boil steadily after adding the egg whites. Egg whites must be heated long enough to coagulate and trap impurities, which are then removed when the jelly is strained. The boil should be steady so the whites set and the juice stays clear.

“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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