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Quinces in Brandy

A preserved fruit dish of quinces steeped in brandy and syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Spirit and syrup work together. They rank in the top 16% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 141 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Quinces in Brandy

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel the quinces.

  2. Place the peeled quinces in water with 1 ounce of alum for every 6 gallons of water.

  3. Slice and core the quinces.

  4. Put the sliced quinces in glass jars.

  5. Cover the jars with proof spirit.

Make the syrup

  1. Prepare a kettle of syrup to 28° Beaume.

  2. Let the syrup cool.

  3. Add the sliced quinces to the syrup.

  4. Heat the mixture slowly until the quinces are softened.

Soak and bottle

  1. Pick the slices one by one.

  2. Place the slices in a stone jar.

  3. Boil the syrup until it reaches 28° Beaume.

  4. Pour the boiled syrup over the quinces.

  5. Leave the mixture for 36 hours.

  6. Drain the quinces and bottle them.

Cover and store

  1. Cover the bottled quinces with a liquor made of 2 parts infused proof spirit and 1 part cold syrup at 28°.

  2. Cover the jars with parchment paper.

  3. Let the jars stand for 8 days.

  4. Refill the jars with the same liquor.

  5. Seal the jars 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. Spirit + syruptop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together141 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Quince + spirittop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  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
Firm fruit that softens with gentle heat and becomes tender in the syrup.
Proof spirit
Preserves the fruit and carries aroma into the liquor.
Syrup
Sugar concentration sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it.

The step that matters

Bring the syrup to 28° Beaume. Beaume measures syrup density, which reflects its sugar concentration. A syrup at the right strength sweetens the fruit and helps preserve it, while a weaker syrup gives less protection.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Apricotfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against spirit, 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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