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Dessert

Quince Jam

A sweet preserve made from sliced quince, sugar, and cloves.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 164 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Quince Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare and thinly slice the quinces.

  2. Place them in a pot and add enough water to cover.

  3. Boil gently until tender, then rub through a large sieve.

Make the jam

  1. In a preserving pan, combine 1 pound of the pulp with 1 ½ pounds of sugar and ¼ cup of syrup of cloves.

  2. Simmer until the mixture reaches a good strength.

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. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  3. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,444 recipes

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

  4. Quince + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Quinces
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body and natural pectin of the jam.
Sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it set into a thick, spreadable texture.
Syrup of cloves
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the jam.

The step that matters

Simmer until the mixture reaches a good strength. Sugar and fruit pectin only set properly once enough water has evaporated and the sugar concentration is high. Stopping too early leaves a runny jam, while cooking too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, syrup. 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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