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Dessert

Mint Jelly

A chilled mint-flavored gelatin dessert made with mint leaves, water, gelatin, sugar, lemon juice, and optional coloring.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Mint Jelly

Why it works: Mint and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,998 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Mint Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Make the mint infusion

  1. Bruise and chop the mint leaves.

  2. Cover the mint with boiling water and steep for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the mixture.

Finish and set

  1. Soak the gelatine in warm water until dissolved, then add it to the mint water.

  2. Stir in the powdered sugar and lemon juice or vinegar.

  3. Color the mixture with spinach or green fruit coloring.

  4. Pour into molds that have been immersed in water but not dried.

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.

Photo for illustrative purposes only · Contact us to use it

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. Mint + lemontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,998 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Lemon + spinachtop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,109 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

  3. Mint + spinachtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together290 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

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

  5. Mint + sugartop 32% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,592 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon 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

Tender mint leaves
Provide the main flavour and green colour of the jelly base.
Gelatine
Sets the liquid into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
Powdered sugar
Adds sweetness and balances the sharpness of the acid.
Lemon juice or vinegar
Adds acidity that brightens the mint flavour and sharpens the sweetness.

The step that matters

Pour into molds that have been immersed in water but not dried. A thin film of water on the mold keeps the set jelly from sticking, so it can be unmolded cleanly. Dry molds let the gelatine grip the surface and tear when released.

Swap the spinach

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

  1. Cucumberfits better
  2. Arrowrootfits better
  3. Kalefits about as well
  4. Spinachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against mint, sugar, lemon. 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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