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Quince Jelly

A fruit jelly made from quinces, cranberries, and apples, sweetened with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Quince Jelly

Why it works: Quince and apple 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 ↓

Quince Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and wipe the quinces, then quarter, core, and cut them finely.

  2. Quarter, core, and cut the apples finely.

  3. Combine the quinces, apples, and cranberries in a pot.

  4. Add enough water to nearly cover the fruit, then cover and simmer until very soft.

Extract the juice

  1. Turn the mixture into a jelly bag and drain the juice.

  2. Boil the juice for 20 minutes, then measure it.

Make the jelly

  1. Add 1 pint of sugar for each pint of juice.

  2. Once the sugar is dissolved, boil for 5 to 8 minutes or until it jellies.

  3. Pour the jelly into sterilized jars.

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 + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Apple + sugartop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together16,478 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

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

Apple and sugar barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 16,478 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
Provide the bulk of the fruit and natural pectin that helps the jelly set.
Cranberries
Add tartness and acidity that balances the sweetness of the sugar.
Tart apples
Contribute additional pectin and body to help the jelly firm up.
Sugar
Sweetens the jelly and, with the pectin and acid, helps it set.

The step that matters

Boiling the sugar and juice until it jellies. Boil long enough for the sugar and pectin to reach the setting point, but not so long that the jelly becomes overly firm or dark. Checking for a set is what tells you it is ready.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, sugar):

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Vanillafits about as well
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, 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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