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Dessert

Quince Preserves

A sweet preserve made by simmering quince slices with water and sugar, then boiling until thickened.

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 Preserves

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Wash and wipe the quinces.

  2. Pare, core, and cut them into slices or quarters.

  3. Place each piece in cold water to prevent discoloration.

  4. Put the quinces in a kettle and barely cover with boiling water.

  5. Simmer until tender.

  6. Carefully skim out the fruit.

  7. Add the parings (not the cores) to the liquid.

  8. Cover and simmer for one hour.

  9. Strain the liquid.

Make the syrup

  1. For every pint of juice, add one pint of sugar and stir until dissolved.

  2. Bring the mixture to a boil.

  3. Boil hard for fifteen minutes, skimming well.

  4. Add the quinces.

  5. Boil until they are clear and red, keeping them covered for better color.

Jar and finish

  1. Skim the quinces into hot sterilized jelly glasses.

  2. If necessary, boil the juice longer to thicken.

  3. Pour it over the fruit.

  4. Stand the jars in the sunshine to finish.

  5. Seal as directed.

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 fruit that becomes tender and sets into the preserve.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, with boiling, helps it thicken as the juice reduces.

The step that matters

Boil until the quinces are clear and red. Quinces need prolonged cooking to soften and turn from pale to deep red. Keeping them covered helps the color develop evenly, and undercooking leaves them firm and pale.

“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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