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Dessert

Guava Marmalade

A sweet preserve made from guavas, water, sugar, cinnamon, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Guava Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Cut the ends off the guavas and slice them.

  2. Add a little water and cook until soft.

  3. Strain the mixture through a colander to remove seeds.

Make the marmalade

  1. Add 75% as much sugar as the pulp.

  2. Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until it thickens.

  3. Add ¼ teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon cloves for each quart of fruit pulp.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + cinnamontop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together30,779 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  3. Guava + cinnamontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together19 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

  4. Guava + clovetop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together12 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Guava + sugartop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together115 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and cinnamon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 30,779 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Guavas
Provide the main fruit flesh, pectin and tart flavour that give the marmalade its body and taste.
Sugar
Sweetens the pulp and, as it cooks down, thickens the mixture and helps it set.
Cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice that complements the guava flavour.
Cloves
Adds a strong, aromatic spice note that pairs with the guava and cinnamon.

The step that matters

Cook over low heat, stirring occasionally until it thickens. Sugar and fruit pulp can scorch on the bottom of the pan if heat is too high or stirring is neglected. Gentle heat lets the mixture reduce evenly and reach a thick, spreadable set without burning.

Swap the guava

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Quincefits better
  4. Guavathe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cinnamon, clove. 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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