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Dessert

Preserved Quinces

A method for preserving quinces in sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Preserved Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Wash, peel, core, and cut quinces into quarters.

  2. Place quinces in a preserving kettle.

  3. Cover the kettle with boiling water.

  4. Simmer until tender.

  5. Cool quinces on platters.

Make the syrup

  1. In a separate pot, mix sugar with 1 pint of the water used to cook the quinces.

  2. Boil the mixture for ten minutes.

Cook and jar

  1. Add quinces a few at a time to the syrup, then cover the kettle.

  2. Cook slowly until quinces turn a rich red color.

  3. Fill hot jars with the quinces.

  4. Seal the jars.

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
The main fruit; simmering softens it, and slow cooking in syrup turns it red.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, dissolved in syrup, helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Cooking the quinces slowly in the syrup. Adding quinces a few at a time keeps the syrup boiling steadily. Slow cooking lets sugar slowly penetrate the fruit, which preserves it and gives it an even red color. Rushing this step can leave the fruit tough or unevenly colored.

“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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