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Pickled Quinces

Pickled quinces are preserved in a sugar and vinegar syrup with spices.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Pickled Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and core the quinces.

  2. Cut small ones into quarters and large ones into eighths.

  3. Weigh the prepared fruit and use ¾ pound of sugar for every pound of fruit.

Make the syrup

  1. Layer the quinces and sugar alternately in a preserving kettle and bring to a slow boil.

  2. For every 5 pounds of fruit and sugar, add 1 cup of strong vinegar and 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon, cloves, and mace.

  3. Once the syrup boils, add the spices and vinegar, and boil for 6 minutes.

  4. Remove the fruit with a slotted spoon and spread it on flat dishes while the syrup continues to boil until thickened.

Pack and seal

  1. Pack the fruit into airtight glass jars, fill with boiling syrup, and seal 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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Clove + macetop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together8,400 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

  5. Cinnamon + macetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together3,611 recipes

    Shared aroma: methyleugenol (clove, spice).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Provide the firm fruit that softens and turns tender and sweet in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and helps draw out liquid to form the syrup.
Strong vinegar
Adds acidity that sharpens the flavor and helps preserve the fruit.

The step that matters

Boiling the syrup until thickened. Boiling the syrup long enough concentrates the sugar and reduces the liquid, which helps the pickle keep and gives it a proper set. Too little boiling leaves a thin syrup that spoils more readily.

Swap the mace

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Allspicefits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerfits better
  4. Macethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, vinegar, cinnamon, clove. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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