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Dessert

Candied Quince

A preserved quince treated with sodium bisulfite and syrup, slowly heated and reboiled over several days.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and syrup match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 6% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 5,842 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Candied Quince

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Peel, slice, and core the quinces.

  2. Soak them in cold water mixed with sodium bisulfite for one hour.

  3. Dry the quinces on trays.

  4. Bleach them in a sulfur room overnight.

  5. Blanch the quinces in the cold water bath, heating slowly until just before boiling.

Candy in syrup

  1. Place the quinces in earthenware jars.

  2. Pour over lukewarm syrup at 68°F (20°C).

  3. After 24 hours, drain the syrup.

  4. Reboil it to 72°F (22°C).

  5. Pour it over the quinces again.

  6. Repeat this process every three days, increasing the syrup temperature by 2°F each time until it reaches 90°F (32°C).

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. Sugar + syruptop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,842 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,444 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Quince + syruptop 22% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together80 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Are the fruit being candied; they soften and turn translucent as syrup penetrates them.
Sugar
Forms the syrup that replaces the fruit's water, preserving it and adding sweetness.
Sodium bisulfite
Bleaches the fruit and helps keep its pale color during soaking and bleaching.

The step that matters

Raising the syrup temperature gradually. Each reboil and pour must be stepped up slowly so the fruit can absorb syrup without its cell structure collapsing. Heating too fast can make the fruit tough or break it apart.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, syrup):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Pearfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, syrup. 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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