Why it works: Sugar and gelatin are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,778 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓
Strawberry Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the juice
Mash the strawberries in a pan using a wooden spoon or potato masher.
Place a sieve over another pan and line it with thin muslin; strain the strawberry juice through this.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add 1 pound of sugar and ¼ ounce of dissolved isinglass.
Heat the mixture over the fire and boil until it reaches a jelly consistency.
Set and cover
Pour the jelly into glasses while warm and cover them once cool.
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.
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Sugar + gelatintop 7% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together2,778 recipes
Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Strawberries
- Provide the flavour and the juice that forms the body of the jelly.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled.
- Isinglass
- Gelatin that sets the strained juice into a firm, sliceable jelly as it cools.
The step that matters
Boiling to jelly consistency. Boiling must reach the point where the sugar and gelatin set on cooling. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny, while too much can make it stiff and cloudy.
“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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