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Dessert

The J>mij Dessert

A chilled dessert made from lemon Jell-O, maraschino cherries, English walnuts, 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: Lemon and walnut match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 2,149 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

The J>mij Dessert

Ingredients

Directions

  1. Dissolve the Lemon Jell-O in boiling water.

  2. Just as it begins to thicken, stir in the Maraschino Cherries and English Walnut meats.

  3. When cool, serve 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. Lemon + walnuttop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,149 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Walnut + creamtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,982 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Meat + creamtop 24% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,248 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Lemon + meattop 28% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,817 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-ol (mushroom, earthy).

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

What each ingredient does

Lemon jell-o
Gelatin that sets the liquid into a firm, wobbly dessert and provides the lemon flavor.
Maraschino cherries
Add sweetness, color and a fruity flavor to the set dessert.
English walnut meats
Add crunch and a nutty flavor against the soft gel.
Whipped cream
Adds richness and a light, creamy contrast to the tart lemon gel.

The step that matters

Stir in the cherries and walnuts just as the mixture begins to thicken. If the gelatin is still too thin, the fruit and nuts sink to the bottom. If it has set too firmly, they cannot be mixed in evenly. Gelatin sets as it cools, so timing this moment controls how evenly the pieces are suspended.

Swap the lemon

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

  1. Coconutfits better
  2. Avocadofits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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