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 or English Guava
Ingredients
Directions
Extract the juice
Wash the medlars and place them in a preserving pan with enough water to cover.
Cover with a lid and simmer slowly all day until reduced to a pulp.
Put the pulp and water into a jelly bag and let it sit overnight to drain naturally.
Make the jelly
The next day, add 1 ¼ cups of sugar for every pint of juice. Stir in the sugar only after it has been added.
Boil for about an hour until it is clear and begins to set.
Finish
Pour into jars and seal.
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 juice and natural pectin that lets the jelly set.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the juice and helps the jelly set and keep.
The step that matters
Boil until the jelly begins to set. Sugar and pectin only form a gel when the mixture reaches the right concentration. Boiling too briefly leaves it runny, while boiling too long can make it dull and overly stiff.
“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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