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
Prepare
Wash and wipe the quinces, removing blemishes and blossom ends.
Peel, quarter, and core the quinces.
Combine the cores, seeds, and skins from the quinces with 1 pint of water.
Boil the mixture for 20 minutes.
Strain the mixture through a wire sieve and then through a linen cloth to extract the juice.
Slice the quartered quinces thinly.
Cook the quinces
Cook the sliced quinces with 1 pint of the extracted juice until soft but not breaking.
Strain the cooked quinces through a linen cloth.
Make the jelly
Mix 1 pound of sugar with 1 pint of the juice.
Heat the mixture on the stove, skimming as it begins to boil.
Let it set into jelly in about 5 minutes.
Pour the jelly into glasses lined with double writing paper dipped in brandy.
For color, mix 1 pint of cranberry juice with 4 pints of quince juice.
Add 1 pound of sugar for every pint of juice.
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 + cranberrytop 10% of all pairsSmell alikestrongCooked together6 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Quince + brandytop 14% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together91 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
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Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together11,939 recipes
Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,444 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Cranberry + brandytop 25% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together14 recipes
Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 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
- Their natural pectin and acidity help the juice set into a firm jelly.
- White granulated sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and, with pectin and acid, helps it gel and keep its set.
- Quince juice
- Carries the pectin and acidity that give the jelly its body and set.
- Cranberry juice
- Adds a rosy color and some tartness to the jelly.
The step that matters
Boiling the sugar and juice mixture. Pectin, sugar and acid only form a firm gel at the right concentration. Boiling too briefly leaves the jelly runny, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavor. Skimming the foam keeps the jelly clear.
Swap the cranberry
The recipe marks cranberry as optional. How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar, brandy):
- Vanillafits better
- Apricotfits better
- Applefits better
- Cranberrythe original
Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, brandy. 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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