Name: Quinces, Brandied
Ingredients: 1 pound ripe quinces; ¾ pound loaf sugar; water; brandy

Why it works: Quince and brandy work together. They rank in the top 14% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 91 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Quinces, Brandied

Ingredients

1 pound ripe quinces
¾ pound loaf sugar
water
brandy

Directions

Prepare the quinces

Weigh the quinces and use ¾ pound of sugar for each pound of fruit.
Wash the quinces and place them in a preserving pan with enough water to barely cover them.
Simmer gently until soft enough for a pin to easily pierce them, then drain and set aside.

Make the syrup

Boil the sugar with enough water to moisten it until bubbles form.
Add the quinces and let them boil once, then set aside until the next day.
Pour off the syrup and place the quinces in wide-mouthed bottles.
Boil the syrup until thick and clear, then let it cool.

Bottle and store

Mix the cooled syrup with an equal amount of brandy and pour over the quinces.
Seal the bottles with bladders and store in a cool, dry place.

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.

Quince + brandytop 14% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together91 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).
Sugar + brandytop 19% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together11,939 recipes

Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).
Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,444 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and brandy barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 11,939 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces: Firm fruit that softens when simmered and gives the preserve its flavor and body.
Sugar: Sweetens the fruit and, boiled into syrup, preserves it by drawing out moisture.
Brandy: Adds aroma and alcohol that helps keep the preserved fruit stable.