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Mint Jelly

A jelly made from greenings apples, mint, lemon juice, spinach juice for color, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Mint Jelly

Why it works: Lemon and mint 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

Prepare

  1. Core and chop the apples.

Make the jelly

  1. Cook the apples until half done.

  2. Add finely chopped mint leaves.

  3. Stir in lemon juice and enough spinach juice for color just before removing from heat.

  4. Add sugar equal to the quantity of fruit and mix well.

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. Lemon + minttop 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. Apple + lemontop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together7,551 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

  5. Apple + spinachtop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide pectin and fruit body that gives the jelly its structure and set.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens flavor and supports pectin set.
Mint
Contributes the aroma and fresh flavor that defines this jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the jelly set and keep its texture.

The step that matters

Stir in lemon juice and spinach juice just before removing from heat. Adding acid and color late preserves their brightness, since prolonged heating can dull green color and weaken flavor. Timing keeps the mint and color fresh while the pectin sets properly.

Swap the apple

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

  1. Limefits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Avocadofits better
  4. Applethe original

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