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Dessert

Preserved Quinces

A method of preserving quinces in sugar syrup.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Preserved Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare, core, and quarter the quinces, removing any defective parts.

  2. Place the quinces in a preserving kettle and cover with water.

  3. Scald the quinces until soft but do not let them break.

  4. Remove the quinces and place them on a dish.

Make the syrup

  1. For each pound of quinces, add 1 pound of sugar and ½ pint of the boiling water to a pot.

  2. Boil and skim the mixture until it is perfectly clear.

  3. Add the quinces to the syrup and cook until they appear clear and amber in color.

Jar and seal

  1. Remove the quinces and place them in jars, pouring the warm syrup over them.

  2. Once cooled, cover the jars with paper soaked in brandy and secure tightly.

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 that softens and turns clear and amber when cooked in syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, cooked into syrup, helps preserve it and gives it body.

The step that matters

Scalding the quinces. Quinces must be cooked until just soft without breaking apart. Overcooking causes the fruit to fall apart, while undercooking leaves it firm and unable to absorb the syrup evenly.

“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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