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Dessert

Quince Cream

A custard-like dessert made from quince pulp, sugar, and beaten egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Quince Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Cut the quinces into quarters.

  2. Scald the quartered quinces until soft.

  3. Peel the quinces.

  4. Mash the peeled quinces.

  5. Pass the quince pulp through a sieve.

Make the cream

  1. Measure an equal weight of quince pulp and double refined sugar.

  2. Beat and sift the double refined sugar.

  3. Beat the egg whites until they are very white and fluffy.

  4. Combine the quince mixture with the sugar and beaten egg whites.

  5. Mix until well combined and smooth.

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 + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

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

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

  3. Quince + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Provide the fruit pulp and the main flavour and body of the cream.
Double refined sugar
Sweetens the pulp and helps give the cream its smooth, set texture.
Whites of eggs
Beaten to foam, they lighten the cream and give it an airy texture.

The step that matters

Beat the egg whites until very white and fluffy. Egg whites trap air only when beaten to a stable foam. Under-beaten whites stay watery and deflate when folded into the pulp, leaving a dense cream.

Swap the quince

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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