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To Preserve Quinces White

A method for preserving quince in a sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

To Preserve Quinces White

Ingredients

Directions

Make the syrup

  1. Combine sugar, water, and egg whites in a pot.

  2. Boil and skim until clear.

Cook the quinces

  1. Simmer quinces in cold water until tender.

  2. Let cool slightly.

  3. Peel quinces with a sharp knife.

  4. Cut quinces into quarters.

  5. Remove core and any bruised parts.

  6. Place quinces in a preserving pan.

  7. Cover quinces with syrup, allowing for evaporation.

  8. Cover pan until boiling.

  9. Uncover pan.

  10. Skim constantly until quinces are transparent.

Pack the jars

  1. Pour a little syrup into the bottom of a jar. Add a slice of quince. Add more syrup. Repeat until jar is nearly full.

  2. Boil remaining syrup the next day.

  3. Pour remaining syrup over quinces.

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. Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  2. Sugar + quincetop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,444 recipes

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

  3. Egg + quincetop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, once boiled, thickens the syrup that sets the fruit.
Egg whites
Bind to impurities when boiled so they can be skimmed off, leaving a clear syrup.
Quinces
Provide the fruit, which turns tender and translucent as it cooks in the syrup.

The step that matters

Skim constantly until quinces are transparent. Foam and impurities rise as the fruit cooks; removing them keeps the syrup clear. Skimming stops only once the quinces have softened and turned translucent, which takes sustained heat and attention.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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