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Dessert

Apple, Crab-apple, Peach, and Quince Jelly

A jelly made from apples, crab-apples, peaches, quinces, sugar, water, and pectin.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and quince 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 ↓

Apple, Crab-apple, Peach, and Quince Jelly

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no cooking times; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and chop the apples, crab-apples, peaches, and quinces.

  2. Combine the chopped fruit with water in a pot and simmer until soft.

  3. Strain the mixture through a cheesecloth to extract the juice.

Make the jelly

  1. Measure the juice and add an equal amount of sugar.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Add pectin according to package instructions and boil for 1-2 minutes.

  4. Pour the jelly into sterilized jars and seal.

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.

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. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Apple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

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

  3. Peach + quincetop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together46 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Peach + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,308 recipes

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

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

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

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

Apples
Provide natural pectin and acidity that help the jelly set and add fruity flavor.
Crab-apples
Add high natural pectin and tartness that help the jelly firm up.
Quinces
Contribute natural pectin and a floral aroma to the jelly.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and, with the fruit and pectin, helps the jelly set and keeps it preserved.
Pectin
Forms a gel network with sugar and acid so the juice sets into jelly.

The step that matters

Adding the pectin and boiling briefly. Pectin needs sugar and acid at a full boil to form a gel. Boiling too long or too little can leave the jelly runny or stiff, so follow the package timing closely.

Swap the peach

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

  1. Pearfits better
  2. Plumfits better
  3. Apricotfits about as well
  4. Peachthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, crab, 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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