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 ↓
Gelee De Coins—
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the fruit
Wipe the quinces with a napkin and cut them small.
Boil them in a large pan with enough filtered water to cover them until soft.
Turn the mixture onto a sieve and run it through a jelly bag.
Make the jelly
Weigh the liquid and use the same weight of lump sugar.
Boil the sugar to the fifth degree.
Add the fruit.
Skim the jelly as directed for red currant jelly.
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
- Their natural pectin and acidity help the strained liquid set into a firm jelly.
- Lump sugar
- Adds sweetness and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps the jelly set and keep.
The step that matters
Boil the sugar to the fifth degree. The sugar must reach the stated concentration before the fruit is added. Too little boiling leaves the jelly runny and too much makes it stiff and grainy as it cools.
“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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