Why it works: Quince and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,444 recipes. Both carry 1-penten-3-one, which smells fish, pungent. The science ↓
Ce Jelly
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Choose very ripe quinces, wipe them, cut them into quarters, and remove the stalks and cores.
Place the quinces in a preserving pan and add enough cold water to cover them.
Make the jelly
Strain the juice through a sieve once cooked.
Boil the juice with an equal weight of sugar until thickened.
Store
Store in small glass jars.
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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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,444 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
- Quinces
- Provide natural pectin and tartness, which help the juice gel as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, when boiled with the juice, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Boiling the juice with sugar until thickened. Sugar and pectin must reach the setting point to form a gel. Stopping too early leaves a runny jelly, while boiling too long can make it stiff and dull in flavour.
“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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