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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserve made by boiling quinces with sugar and water until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

Quince Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Make the marmalade

  1. Combine quinces, sugar, and water in a pot.

  2. Boil slowly for two hours, stirring and mashing until fine.

Finish and cool

  1. Strain the mixture through a colander.

  2. Pour into glasses or bowls to cool.

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 + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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
Provide the fruit body and natural pectin that help the marmalade thicken and set.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it concentrates during boiling, helps the marmalade set and keep.

The step that matters

Boil slowly and stir while mashing. Slow boiling lets the quince soften and its pectin release gradually, while stirring prevents sticking and scorching on the bottom. Mashing until fine gives a smooth texture. Cooking too fast can burn the sugar before the fruit breaks down.

“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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