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Quince Marmalade

A quince marmalade made by simmering quinces with water and sugar, then pulping and cooking into a thick preserve.

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 ↓

Quince Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Peel, core, and slice quinces when they emit a strong odor, placing them in a preserving pan.

  2. Add enough water to barely cover the quinces and simmer gently until soft, stirring occasionally.

  3. Beat the softened quinces to a pulp with a wooden spoon.

Make the marmalade

  1. Weigh the fruit and add ¾ pound of sugar for each pound of fruit.

  2. Combine the sugar with enough water to moisten it in a preserving pan and boil to a clear syrup.

  3. Add the fruit to the syrup and boil slowly until smooth and thick, stirring frequently.

  4. Check that the marmalade jellies on a plate to determine it is done.

Jar and seal

  1. Pour the hot marmalade into glasses or jars, and cover with paper dipped in egg white once cool.

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 pectin and tart flavor that let the fruit set into a firm marmalade.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, with boiling, thickens it into a preserve that keeps well.

The step that matters

Checking the set on a plate. Boiling must continue until the mixture is thick enough to jelly when cooled. Stopping too early leaves a runny marmalade, while overcooking can make it stiff and sugary.

“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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