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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserve made from quince fruit, sugar, and water, cooked until soft and then strained and jarred.

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 fruit

  1. Wash and wipe the quinces, removing blemishes and the blossom end.

  2. Pare the quinces and cut out the cores.

Make the juice

  1. Boil the skins and cores in 1 pint of cold water for 20 minutes.

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

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

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

Cook and pot the marmalade

  1. Cook the mixture until the quinces are soft but not broken.

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

  3. Mix the sugar with the quinces and cook for 30 minutes, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon to prevent sticking.

  4. Pour the marmalade 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 pectin and fruit body, which help the marmalade thicken and set.
White granulated sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and, with the cooking, helps it set and keep.

The step that matters

Stirring the sugar into the quinces. Sugar-rich mixtures scorch and stick easily on the base of the pan as they thicken. Constant stirring with a wooden spoon keeps the heat even and prevents burnt patches that spoil the flavour and colour.

“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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