Why it works: Quince and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,444 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Quince Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the quinces
Remove the peelings and hard parts around the cores of the quinces.
Extract the juice
Cover the scraps with cold water and boil slowly for several hours, adding more water as needed.
Place the mixture in a flannel bag and let it drip overnight.
Make the jelly
In the morning, boil the juice for twenty minutes and skim off any foam.
Add ¾ pound of sugar for each pound of juice and boil again until it jellies at the edge.
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.
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,444 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Quinces
- Their natural pectin and acidity help the juice set into a firm jelly.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps the pectin gel while preserving the jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar until it jellies at the edge. The pectin and acid only set when the mixture reaches the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while boiling too long can make it stiff and cloudy-tasting, so the edge test matters.
“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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