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Dessert

Quince Sweetmeats

A preserved quince confection made by boiling quince rings, cooking them in syrup, and canning them.

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 Sweetmeats

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Cut the quinces into rings.

  2. Boil the parings and cores in just enough cold water to cover them until very tender.

  3. Strain the mixture through a bag without squeezing.

  4. Layer the quince rings in a kettle and add a little water.

  5. Cover tightly and cook until a straw goes through them.

  6. Carefully skim out the quinces.

  7. Place them in a tureen and cover.

  8. Repeat the boiling process until all quinces are cooked.

Make the syrup

  1. Combine the sugar with the water from the quinces and the drippings from the bag in the kettle.

  2. Boil for 15 minutes and skim.

  3. Pour the syrup over the quinces.

  4. Cover tightly and let stand for 10 days.

Finish and can

  1. Drain the quinces.

  2. Return them to the tureen.

  3. Boil the syrup for 20 minutes.

  4. Pour it over the quinces.

  5. Pack the quinces into cans.

  6. Screw the covers tightly.

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 flesh, which softens and turns tender and sweet as it cooks.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps preserve the quinces during the long standing period.

The step that matters

Cover tightly and cook until a straw goes through them. Quince is firm and fibrous, so it must be cooked gently, covered, until fully tender; underdone pieces stay hard and will not absorb the syrup evenly.

“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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