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 Paste
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the quince
Boil the quinces in water until soft.
Remove the quinces and mash them.
Pass the mashed quinces through a sieve.
Weigh the quince pulp and place it in a pan.
Make the paste
Add an equal weight of sugar to the quince pulp.
Clarify the sugar before mixing.
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
- Quinces
- Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that helps the paste set firm.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, with the fruit's pectin and acid, helps it set and keep.
The step that matters
Add an equal weight of sugar to the quince pulp.. The sugar-to-pulp ratio controls sweetness and setting. Sugar combines with the fruit's pectin and acid to form a gel, so the proportion determines whether the paste firms up well.
“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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