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Dessert

Compote of Quinces

A quince compote made by stewing sliced quinces with water and sugar, then reducing the syrup and topping with cream and biscuits.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Compote of Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and stew

  1. Peel and cut the quinces into thick slices.

  2. Place them in a stewpan with enough water to cover and add the sugar.

  3. Stew for about 4 hours or until soft and a rich maroon color.

Reduce and serve

  1. Transfer the fruit to a dish and reduce the syrup until thick and nearly cold.

  2. Pour the syrup over the fruit and allow it to cool completely.

  3. Top with thick Devonshire cream and garnish with ratafia biscuits.

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. Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  2. Quince + biscuittop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

  3. Cream + biscuittop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,235 recipes

    Shared aroma: octanal (fat, soap).

  4. Sugar + biscuittop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,874 recipes

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

  5. 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 main fruit body, which softens and turns rich maroon during long stewing.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as the syrup reduces, thickens into a glossy coating.
Devonshire cream
Adds richness and fat that contrasts with the tart, cooked fruit.

The step that matters

Stewing until soft and maroon. Quince is firm and astringent when raw, and it only becomes tender and colored after long, gentle cooking. Stopping early leaves the fruit hard and pale, while the syrup must be reduced to a thick consistency so it sets rather than runs off the fruit.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, cream, biscuit):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Coconutfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, cream, biscuit. 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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