Why it works: Sugar and quince 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 Sweetimeats
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the quinces
Pare the quinces.
Core the quinces.
Weigh the quinces.
Cut the quinces into rings.
Boil the parings and cores in just enough cold water to cover them until very tender.
Place the boiled parings and cores in a bag.
Let them drip without squeezing.
Layer the quince rings in a kettle and add a little water.
Cover tightly and cook until tender.
Carefully skim out the quinces.
Make the syrup and rest
Place them in a tureen, covering them.
Combine the sugar with the water from the boiled quinces and the drippings from the bag in the kettle.
Boil for 15 minutes and skim.
Pour the syrup over the quinces.
Cover tightly and let it stand for 10 days.
Reboil and can
After 10 days, place a colander over the kettle.
Pour the contents of the tureen into the colander, ensuring all juice drains into the kettle.
Return the quinces to the tureen.
Boil the syrup for 20 minutes.
Pour the syrup over the quinces.
Transfer the quinces into cans.
Screw the covers tightly.
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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Sugar + quincetop 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
- Provide the fruit, whose pectin and tartness help the sweetmeats set and taste bright.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, boiled into syrup, thickens and preserves it.
The step that matters
Letting the quinces stand for 10 days in syrup. The fruit must soak long enough for sugar to penetrate and firm the flesh; cutting this short leaves the quinces tough and the syrup weak, and the sealed rest is what lets the preserve keep.
“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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