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 Can Quinces
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Slice the quinces thinly like apples.
Prepare jars and lids by placing them in a pan of boiling water.
Make the syrup and cook the quinces
In a saucepan, combine sugar and water; bring to a boil.
Add the quinces to the boiling syrup.
Once the quinces are clear and tender, quickly fill the jars with the fruit and syrup, ensuring the syrup overflows.
Seal
Seal the jars tightly as quickly as possible.
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 main fruit, which softens and turns clear and tender in the hot syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the syrup and adds body to the liquid surrounding the fruit.
The step that matters
Sealing the jars quickly while full. Filling and sealing while the fruit and syrup are still hot helps create a vacuum seal as the contents cool. Delay lets the jars cool and weakens the seal, risking spoilage.
“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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