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Dessert

Quince Jam

A sweet preserve made from sliced quince, sugar, and clove syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 2% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 164 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Quince Jam

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Pare and slice the quinces thinly.

  2. Place them in a pot and add enough water to cover.

  3. Cover and boil gently until tender.

  4. Rub the mixture through a large sieve to obtain pulp.

Make the jam

  1. In a preserving pan, combine 1 pound of pulp, 1 pound of sugar, and ½ cup of syrup of cloves.

  2. Simmer until the mixture reaches a good consistency.

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. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

  4. Quince + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  5. Sugar + clovetop 26% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together17,182 recipes

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

Sugar and clove barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 17,182 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

Ripe quinces
Provide the fruit pulp that forms the body of the jam.
Sifted sugar
Sweetens the jam and helps it thicken and set as it cooks.
Syrup of cloves
Adds a warm, spiced aroma to the jam.

The step that matters

Simmer until the mixture reaches a good consistency. Quince pulp contains natural pectin, and sugar concentrates as water evaporates. Simmering too briefly leaves the jam runny, while overcooking can make it stiff and dull in flavour, so the cook must judge when it has thickened enough to set.

Swap the clove

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Gingerfits about as well
  3. Clovethe original
  4. Nutmegfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, syrup. 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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