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Quince Jelly

A sweet preserve made by cooking quince fruit with water and sugar until it sets.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Quince Jelly

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

  1. Peel, core, and cut up the quinces.

  2. Place them in enough cold water to cover and stew gently until soft, but not red.

  3. Strain the juice without pressure and weigh it.

Make the jelly

  1. For every pound of juice, add one pound of crushed sugar.

  2. Boil the juice for twenty minutes, then add the sugar and boil again until it jellies, about 15 minutes.

  3. Stir and skim well during boiling.

Strain and set

  1. Strain through a thin cloth into jelly glasses and cover when cold.

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. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provide the pectin and acid that let the juice set into a firm jelly.
Crushed sugar
Sweetens the jelly and, at high concentration, helps it set firm and keep well.

The step that matters

Stop the quinces before they turn red. Gentle stewing until soft keeps the juice pale and fresh-tasting; overcooking at a high heat draws out colour and bitterness and can weaken the set.

“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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