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 ↓
Quince Butter
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare the quinces
Rub off the down from the quinces and clean them thoroughly.
Cut the quinces into quarters and remove the cores.
Cook the quinces
Place the quinces in a casserole dish and add enough water to barely cover them.
Cover with a lid and cook in a 350°F (175°C) oven until tender.
Alternatively, cook gently in a saucepan until soft, then rub through a sieve and weigh the pulp.
Make the butter
Add 1 pound of sugar for each pound of pulp and heat gently, stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves.
Cook for about an hour, stirring to prevent burning.
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.
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Ripe quinces
- Provide the fruit pulp that cooks down into the butter's body and flavour.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and helps thicken the pulp into a spreadable butter as it cooks down.
The step that matters
Cook for about an hour, stirring to prevent burning. Sugar and fruit pulp scorch easily on the base of a pan as the water evaporates. Constant stirring spreads the heat and keeps the sugar from caramelising unevenly, which would taste bitter.
“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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