Why it works: Medlar and sugar work together. They rank in the top 35% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 4 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Medlar Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Take ripe medlars and place them in a preserving pan.
Add enough water to cover the medlars and simmer slowly until they become a pulp.
Strain the mixture through a thin jelly bag.
Make the jelly
For every pint of juice, add ¼ pound of lump sugar.
Boil for one hour and pour into jars.
Allow to cool; it will set into a stiff jelly.
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.
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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Medlar + sugartop 35% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together4 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
- Medlars
- Provide the fruit and natural pectin that gives the jelly its body and set.
- Lump sugar
- Sweetens the jelly and helps it set firm as it cooks and cools.
The step that matters
Boil for one hour. Sugar must be dissolved and the juice boiled long enough for the pectin and sugar to reach the concentration needed to set. Too short a boil leaves a runny jelly, while overcooking can darken the flavour and stiffen it too much.
“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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