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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserve made from quinces, water, and brown sugar cooked 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

Prepare

  1. Gather quinces on a dry day and wash them.

  2. Quarter the quinces without peeling them.

Make the pulp

  1. Place them in a pot with just enough water to stew.

  2. Once soft, rub the quinces through a sieve to obtain pulp.

Cook the marmalade

  1. For each pound of pulp, add a pound of brown sugar.

  2. Cook the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly for one hour.

  3. To test, take a small amount and cool it; if it cuts smooth, it's done.

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 pectin and body, so the pulp thickens and sets into a firm marmalade.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the pulp thicken and set while also preserving it.

The step that matters

Cooking over low heat with constant stirring. The pulp thickens as it cooks and the sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pot, so constant stirring over low heat prevents burning. The cool test shows whether enough pectin and sugar have gelled to set.

“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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