Why it works: Wine and lemon are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,157 recipes. Both carry decanal, which smells soap, orange peel. The science ↓
Wine Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the jelly
Soak the gelatine in cold water for 10 minutes.
Pour in boiling water and stir until dissolved.
Add sherry wine, sugar, lemon juice, and zest.
Beat the egg whites and stir into the mixture.
Heat on low until it reaches boiling point.
Clarify and strain
Let it stand for 1 minute, then strain through a jelly bag rinsed in boiling water.
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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Wine + lemontop 13% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together6,157 recipes
Shared aroma: decanal (soap, orange peel).
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Sherry + lemontop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together3,273 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).
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Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together53,532 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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Lemon + eggtop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together44,316 recipes
Shared aroma: (e,e)-2,4-decadienal (fatty, deep fried).
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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
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
- Gelatine
- Sets the liquid into a firm jelly as it cools.
- Sherry wine
- Adds flavour and acidity to the jelly.
- White sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and balances the wine's acidity.
- Egg whites
- Collect impurities when heated, clarifying the jelly for a clear result.
- Lemon juice and zest
- Adds acidity and aroma that brighten the wine flavour.
The step that matters
Stir in the egg whites before heating. The beaten whites must be evenly mixed in before heating so they can coagulate and trap particles as the liquid reaches boiling. Heating and then letting it stand lets the foam settle, and straining through a jelly bag removes the trapped solids to leave a clear jelly.
Swap the lemon
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sherry, wine, sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Applefits better
- Pineapplefits better
- Lemonthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against sherry, wine, sugar, egg. 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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