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Mixed Marmalade

A marmalade made from quinces, pears, peaches, and apples boiled with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and apple match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 649 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Mixed Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the base

  1. Boil the rinds and cores of the quinces in water.

  2. Strain the mixture.

Cook the fruit and sugar

  1. Add the quinces and boil until quite soft.

  2. Add the pears and cook until done.

  3. Add the peaches and cook until quite done.

  4. Finally, add the apples and cook until done.

  5. Stir in 3 lbs of sugar for each peck of fruit.

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. Pear + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Quince + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pear + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Quince + appletop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Peach + appletop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Their natural pectin helps the marmalade thicken and set as it cooks.
Apples
Their pectin and mild acidity add body and help the marmalade set.
Pears
They add soft texture and mellow fruit flavor to the blend.
Peaches
They add moisture, sweetness, and fragrant flavor to the fruit base.
Sugar
It sweetens the fruit, helps preserve it, and supports gel formation with pectin.

The step that matters

Stir in the sugar for each peck of fruit. Sugar is added after the fruit is already soft. It must dissolve fully and the mixture must cook long enough to set. Too little cooking can leave the marmalade runny, and sugar left undissolved can make it grainy or cause scorching on the pan bottom.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, pear, apple, sugar):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Peachthe original
  4. Vanillafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, pear, apple, sugar. 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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