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
Cut the quinces into quarters and scald them until soft.
Peel and mash the quinces, then pass the pulp through a sieve.
Make the cream
Combine the quince puree with an equal weight of sifted double refined sugar.
Beat the egg whites until they are very white and fluffy.
Fold the egg whites into the quince mixture and place in dishes.
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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Sugar + eggtop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together122,807 recipes
Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
-
Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together1,444 recipes
Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
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Quince + eggtop 33% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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 main flavour and the pulp that forms the body of the cream.
- Double refined sugar
- Sweetens the quince pulp and helps keep the cream soft and smooth.
- Whites of eggs
- Beaten to a foam, they lighten the mixture and give it an airy, fluffy texture.
The step that matters
Beating the egg whites. Egg whites must be beaten until fluffy so they trap air. If they are underbeaten or deflated when folded in, the cream will be dense rather than light.
Swap the quince
How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, egg):
- Vanillafits better
- Raisinfits better
- Lemonfits better
- 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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