Why it works: Sugar and flour are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 15% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 92,116 recipes. Both carry phenylacetaldehyde, which smells hawthorne, honey. The science ↓
Lemon Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Make the jelly
In a pot, combine 3 pints of water, lemon juice, sugar, and cornstarch or flour dissolved in a little water.
Add the yolks of 6 beaten eggs and the grated lemon peel.
Boil the mixture until thick, then remove from heat.
Finish and serve
Once cooled, fold in the beaten egg whites.
Serve with sweet milk and sweet crackers, or garnish with fruit jelly.
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 + flourtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together106,462 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + flourtop 17% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together30,404 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Lemon + sugartop 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).
Flour and egg barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 106,462 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
- Eggs
- Yolks thicken the mixture as it cooks, and whites folded in at the end lighten its texture.
- Cornstarch or all-purpose flour
- Starch swells when heated, thickening the liquid into a set, spoonable jelly.
- Lemon juice
- Provides the sharp acidity that defines the flavor of the dish.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness to balance the sharpness of the lemon juice.
The step that matters
Boil the mixture until thick, then remove from heat. Egg yolks and starch thicken as they heat, but overcooking can curdle the yolks and cause a grainy texture. Stop once it is thick and fold in the whites only after it has cooled.
Swap the currant
The recipe marks currant as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (lemon, sugar, flour, egg):
- Raisinfits better
- Vanillafits better
- Orangefits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, sugar, flour, 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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