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To Make Quince Marmalade

A preserved quince spread made by cooking quince with sugar and water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 ↓

To Make Quince Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare and quarter the quinces, removing the cores.

  2. Place the quinces in a well-tinned saucepan.

  3. Cover the quinces with the parings.

  4. Fill the saucepan near full with spring water.

  5. Cover the saucepan tightly.

  6. Simmer over low heat until the quinces are soft and pink.

  7. Remove the quinces from the saucepan.

  8. Mash the quinces to a pulp in a mortar.

Make the marmalade

  1. Measure the weight of the mashed quinces.

  2. Use the same weight of fine loaf sugar.

  3. Add enough water to the sugar to dissolve it.

  4. Boil the sugar mixture.

  5. Skim the syrup.

  6. Add the quince pulp to the syrup.

  7. Boil gently for 45 minutes.

  8. Stir constantly to prevent sticking.

Pot and cover

  1. Once cooled, transfer the marmalade to sweetmeat pots.

  2. Cover the pots with brandy paper.

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 + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 that sets into the marmalade's body and flavour.
Fine loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it thickens, helps the marmalade set firm.

The step that matters

Stir constantly during the final boil. Quince pulp is thick and sugary, so it scorches on the base of the pan easily. Constant stirring spreads the heat evenly and prevents sticking and burnt flavour.

“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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