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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserved quince spread made by boiling quince skins, cores, and juice with sugar.

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 juice

  1. Wash the quinces, remove blemishes and the blossom end, pare them, and cut out the cores.

  2. Add 1 pint of cold water to the skins and cores.

  3. Boil for 20 minutes.

  4. Strain the mixture through a wire sieve and then through a linen cloth.

Make the marmalade

  1. Cut the quinces into thin slices and combine with 1 pint of the juice.

  2. If there isn't enough juice, add some water.

  3. Cook until the quinces are soft but not broken.

  4. Rub the cooked quinces through a coarse wire sieve.

  5. Mix the sugar and quinces well.

  6. Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.

Pot

  1. Pour into jelly glasses or glass jars lined with double writing paper dipped in brandy.

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-rich fruit that thickens and sets the marmalade as it cooks.
White granulated sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set and keep when cooked down.
Cold water
Extracts flavour and pectin from the skins and cores to make the juice.

The step that matters

Cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.. Sugar and fruit thicken as water evaporates, and the mixture scorches easily on the base of the pan. Constant stirring spreads heat evenly and keeps the marmalade from burning.

“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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