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Canned Quinces

This recipe preserves quinces in syrup for long-term storage.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 336 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Canned Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare, core, and quarter the quinces, or cut them into rings.

  2. Soak the quinces in cold water with a little lemon juice to prevent discoloration, or use slightly salted water.

  3. Save the parings, cores, and seeds for jelly.

Cook and can

  1. Cook the quinces in boiling water for 5 minutes.

  2. Drain or pack the quinces into clean jars, fill with syrup, and sterilize like Canned Apples.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  2. Lemon + syruptop 20% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  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
Provide the fruit that softens and becomes tender when cooked in syrup.
Lemon juice
Acidity helps prevent the cut quince flesh from turning brown.
Syrup
Sweetness and liquid fill the jars and flavour the fruit.

The step that matters

Soaking the quinces after cutting. Cut quince flesh oxidises and darkens quickly when exposed to air. Acidic lemon juice in cold water slows this browning, so soaking promptly keeps the fruit pale.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Limefits better
  3. Raspberryfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against lemon, 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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