Skip to main content
Main

Preserved Quinces

Preserved quinces are quinces cooked in a sugar and molasses syrup, then stored in jars.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Sugar and molasses are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Preserved Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Soak quinces in water for 10-12 hours.

  2. Pare, halve, and core the quinces.

Make the syrup

  1. Cover quinces with syrup in a preserving kettle.

  2. Boil gently until tender.

  3. Remove from heat when a broom splinter goes through easily.

  4. Strain the syrup.

  5. Boil the syrup down to cover the fruit.

  6. Boil the parings in new cider until soft.

  7. Strain the cider.

  8. Mix the cider with brown sugar, molasses, and egg white.

  9. Clarify the mixture.

Finish and store

  1. Add the quinces to the mixture.

  2. Boil slowly for 30 minutes.

  3. Keep covered while boiling for a light color.

  4. Transfer to pots.

  5. Store in a cool place.

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 + molassestop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

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

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

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

  4. Quince + molassestop 29% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together39 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. 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
Form the fruit itself, which softens and turns tender and translucent during long gentle cooking.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and helps preserve the fruit by drawing out moisture as it thickens.
Molasses
Adds dark color, deep sweetness and a rich caramel-like flavor.
Egg white
Is used in clarifying the mixture, where it binds impurities so they can be removed.

The step that matters

Keep covered while boiling for a light color. Exposure to air and long heat darkens fruit through browning, so keeping the pot covered limits oxidation and helps preserve a lighter color.

Swap the quince

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, 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.

You might also like

Molasses SauceMolasses Sauce32 recipesTomato SoupTomato Soup526 recipesBrown BreadBrown Bread461 recipesMutton BrothMutton Broth292 recipes