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Mint Jelly

A chilled mint-flavored jelly made with vinegar, sugar, and gelatin, served with lamb.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Mint Jelly

Why it works: White wine and vinegar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,776 recipes. Both carry beta-damascenone, which smells apple, rose. The science ↓

Mint Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the gelatine and mint

  1. Soak the gelatine in cold water for 30 minutes.

  2. Put the minced mint into a double boiler, add boiling water, and let it stand over heat for 10 minutes.

Make the jelly

  1. Add the sugar, salt, and soaked gelatine, stirring until the gelatine is dissolved.

  2. Strain the mixture through a double thickness of cheesecloth, pressing hard to extract all the mint flavor.

  3. Add the vinegar and, if desired, a little green food coloring.

  4. Pour into small molds, chill until firm, then turn out and serve with cold roast lamb or lamb croquettes.

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. White wine + vinegartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  2. Vinegar + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together20,806 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  3. White wine + minttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: myrcene (balsamic, herbaceous).

  4. Vinegar + minttop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together1,376 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. White wine + sugartop 30% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,586 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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, sliceable jelly as it cools.
White wine vinegar
Provides the sharp acidity that balances the sugar and mint.
Granulated sugar
Sweetens the jelly and adds body to the set texture.
Mint leaves
Supply the characteristic mint aroma and flavor.

The step that matters

Dissolve the gelatine fully before straining. Gelatine only sets when it is completely dissolved and evenly distributed. Undissolved granules leave gritty specks and weak spots, so the jelly may not firm evenly when chilled.

Swap the mint

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (white wine, vinegar, sugar):

  1. Tarragonfits better
  2. Cinnamonfits better
  3. Garlicfits better
  4. Mintthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against white wine, vinegar, 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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