Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓
Jellies
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Use a porcelain kettle or a bright brass kettle.
Place fruit in the kettle with just enough water to prevent burning.
Stir often and heat until the fruit is thoroughly scalded.
Alternatively, place fruit in a stone jar in a kettle of tepid water and boil until softened.
Cut larger fruits into pieces, remove defective cores, and cover with water.
Boil gently until tender, then drain for three to four hours or overnight.
Extract the juice
Strain the juice through a hot, wrung-out flannel or cotton bag, squeezing as it cools.
Rinse the bag after each use.
Make the jelly
Combine equal measures of juice and sugar.
Boil the juice rapidly for ten minutes, skim, then add sugar and boil for another ten minutes.
Alternatively, spread sugar in a pan, heat in the oven, boil juice for twenty minutes, add hot sugar, let boil once, and pour into jelly glasses.
To test jelly, drop a little into very cold water; if it sinks, it's done; if it remains rounded in a saucer, it's finished.
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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Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together506 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Grape + appletop 1% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together1,659 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-isobutyl-3-methoxypyrazine (green bell pepper, earthy).
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Grape + quincetop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together96 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).
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Currant + appletop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together1,918 recipes
Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).
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Currant + quincetop 16% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together91 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs
What each ingredient does
- Fruit (currants, grapes, apples, quinces)
- Provides the natural pectin and acid that let the juice set into a jelly.
- Granulated sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with boiling, helps the juice thicken and set firmly.
The step that matters
Testing for the set. Jelly keeps boiling until enough sugar and pectin concentrate to gel. Cooling a small sample in cold water shows whether it has reached that point, so under-boiled jelly stays runny and over-boiled jelly turns stiff.
Swap the currant
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (grape, apple, quince, sugar):
- Pearfits better
- Plumfits better
- Apricotfits better
- Currantthe original
Fit is the average pairing score against grape, apple, quince, sugar. 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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