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
Select unripe yellow quinces, rub off down, core, and cut into small pieces.
Place quinces in a preserving kettle with ½ cup water per pound of fruit; stew gently until soft, without mashing.
Put cooked quinces in a thin muslin bag and press lightly to extract juice.
Make the jelly
For each pint of juice, add 1 pound sugar and stir until dissolved.
Heat mixture over fire and boil gently until it reaches jelly consistency; test by cooling a small amount on a plate.
Pour jelly into pots or tumblers and secure them once cooled.
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 juice, which contains the pectin that lets the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm when boiled with the juice.
The step that matters
Boiling to jelly consistency. Boil gently until the mixture reaches the set point; undercooking leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking makes it stiff and can darken its flavour. The cold-plate test shows when pectin and sugar have reached the right concentration.
“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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