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 fruit
Quarter a peck of quinces without peeling or coring, and remove any bad spots.
Cook half a peck of quinces in water until soft.
Place the cooked fruit in a jelly bag and let it drain overnight.
Squeeze out all the juice and measure it.
Make the jelly
Cook the juice for about 15 minutes.
Add an equal amount of sugar and cook until a sample thickens when placed on ice.
Pour the jelly into tumblers and cover with melted paraffin once cool.
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
- Provide the fruit's pectin and tart flavor that give the jelly its set and character.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the cooked juice, helps the jelly set.
The step that matters
Testing the set on ice. Jelly keeps cooking until a cooled sample thickens, because sugar and pectin only gel at the right concentration. Stopping too early leaves it runny; cooking too long can make it stiff.
“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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