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 ↓
Steamed Quinces
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare, quarter, and core the quinces.
Place them in a deep dish and steam until perfectly tender.
Assemble and serve
Slice the quinces in the dish where they will be served, layering them and sprinkling sugar between the layers.
Pour the juice over the sliced quinces.
Serve cold.
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
- Very ripe quinces
- Provide the main fruit, which softens into tender slices when steamed.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps balance the tart flavour of the quince.
The step that matters
Steam until perfectly tender. Quince is firm and astringent when raw, and it only becomes soft and sweet-tasting after thorough cooking. Stopping early leaves slices hard and tart, so the fruit should be tested with a knife before it is removed from the heat.
“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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