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Dessert

Quince Pudding

A baked quince custard made with quince, cream, egg yolks, and spices, topped with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and ginger match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 6,380 recipes. Both carry estragole, which smells anise, licorice. The science ↓

Quince Pudding

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare, core, and quarter the quinces.

  2. Place them in a saucepan and cover with boiling water. Simmer gently until soft.

Make the filling

  1. Press the quinces through a sieve and sweeten the pulp. Add lemon juice, cinnamon, or ginger to taste.

  2. Once cool, stir in the thick cream and well-beaten egg yolks.

Bake and serve

  1. Line a pie dish with puff pastry and pour in the quince mixture.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) for about an hour.

  3. Sift white sugar thickly over the pudding before serving.

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. Cinnamon + gingertop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  2. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  3. Lemon + gingertop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together5,154 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  4. Lemon + cinnamontop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together7,950 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  5. Quince + gingertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together62 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, pear).

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 flavour and body of the pudding once cooked to a soft pulp.
Thick cream
Adds richness and a smooth, creamy texture to the filling.
Egg yolks
Thicken the custard-like filling as they set during baking and add richness.
Sugar
Sweetens the quince pulp and adds flavour balance against its tartness.
Puff pastry
Forms a crisp, buttery base that holds the filling in the pie dish.

The step that matters

Stirring in the cream and yolks once cool. Adding beaten yolks to a hot pulp can scramble them and make the filling grainy. Letting the mixture cool first keeps it smooth and lets the yolks thicken evenly when baked.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, lemon, cinnamon, ginger, cream, egg):

  1. Orangefits better
  2. Vanillafits better
  3. Limefits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon, cinnamon, ginger, cream, 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.

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