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Dessert

Chocolate Walnut Jell-O

A gelatin dessert made with chocolate, walnuts, figs, and topped with whipped cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Walnut and fig match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 4% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 373 recipes. Both carry 2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Chocolate Walnut Jell-O

Ingredients

Directions

Make the gelatin

  1. Add 1 pint of boiling water to 1 package of Chocolate Jell-O slowly and set aside to cool.

  2. When it begins to harden, stir in ½ cup of English walnut meats and 6 finely cut figs.

Serve

  1. Serve in individual dishes topped with whipped cream.

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.

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. Walnut + figtop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together373 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Chocolate + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,548 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-ethyl-2,5-dimethylpyrazine (roasted, nutty).

  3. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

  4. Walnut + meattop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,035 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  5. Chocolate + figtop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together140 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl 2-methylbutyrate (fruity, apple).

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

What each ingredient does

English walnut meats
Adds a crunchy texture and nutty flavour that contrasts with the soft gelatin.
Figs
Add chewy texture and natural sweetness to the set dessert.

The step that matters

Stirring in the walnuts and figs as the gelatin begins to harden. If the gelatin is still liquid, the walnuts and figs sink and settle at the bottom. If it has set firm, they will not mix in evenly. Waiting for the mixture to thicken slightly lets the pieces stay suspended throughout.

Swap the fig

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (chocolate, walnut, meat, cream):

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Avocadofits about as well
  4. Figthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against chocolate, walnut, meat, cream. 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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