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Dessert

Quince Jelly

A jelly made from quince fruit, water, sugar, and optional cranberry juice.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Quince Jelly

Why it works: Quince and cranberry share more aroma than cooks usually use. They rank in the top 10% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Quince Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Extract the juice

  1. Wash and wipe the quinces, removing blemishes and the blossom end.

  2. Pare, quarter, and core the quinces.

  3. Place the cores, seeds, and skins in a pot.

  4. Weigh the skins and cores.

  5. Add 1 pint of water for every pound.

  6. Boil for 20 minutes.

  7. Strain the juice through a wire sieve and linen cloth.

Cook the quinces

  1. Slice the quartered quinces thinly.

  2. For every pound, add 1 pint of the juice.

  3. Cook until soft but not breaking.

  4. Strain through a linen cloth.

Make the jelly

  1. Combine 1 pint of juice with 1 pound of sugar. Mix well before heating.

  2. Boil, then skim quickly.

  3. It will set into jelly in about 5 minutes.

  4. Pour into jelly glasses lined with double writing paper dipped in brandy.

Cranberry variation

  1. Mix 1 pint of cranberry juice with 4 pints of quince juice.

  2. Add 1 pound of sugar.

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 + cranberrytop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

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

  3. Sugar + cranberrytop 25% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together374 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Supply the pectin and tart aroma that help the jelly set and taste distinctive.
White granulated sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the pectin and acid, helps the juice gel into jelly.
Cranberry juice
Adds tartness and a deeper colour to the jelly.

The step that matters

Boil, then skim quickly. The juice and sugar must reach a hard, rolling boil to reach the setting point of pectin. Undercooking leaves the jelly runny, while overcooking darkens and dulls it. Skimming removes foam so the jelly stays clear.

Swap the cranberry

The recipe marks cranberry as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Pearfits better
  3. Applefits better
  4. Cranberrythe original

Fit is the average pairing score against 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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