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Dessert

Marmalade of Mixed Fruits

A preserve made from equal parts apples, pears, peaches, and quinces cooked with water and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and pear match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 649 recipes. Both carry isoamyl acetate, which smells banana, fruity. The science ↓

Marmalade of Mixed Fruits

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Peel and finely cut equal quantities of apples, pears, peaches, and quinces.

Cook the marmalade

  1. Boil the fruit with 1 pint of water for about two hours until thoroughly cooked.

  2. Remove the fruit and mash it well.

  3. Clean the kettle and return the mashed fruit to it.

  4. Add 3 pounds of sugar and cook slowly for two hours.

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. Apple + peartop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together649 recipes

    Shared aroma: isoamyl acetate (banana, fruity).

  2. Pear + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together133 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  3. Pear + peachtop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together114 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,4-decadienal (seaweed).

  4. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  5. Apple + peachtop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together303 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

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

What each ingredient does

Apples
Provide body and natural pectin that helps the marmalade set.
Pears
Add mild sweetness and soft texture to the mashed fruit.
Peaches
Contribute fruity aroma and softness to the finished spread.
Quinces
Supply pectin and a firm, fragrant character that helps the marmalade set.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, with long cooking, thickens it into a spreadable marmalade.

The step that matters

Cooking the mashed fruit with sugar. Sugar must be added to fruit that is already fully softened, and cooked slowly so it dissolves evenly. Sugar and pectin together help the mixture thicken as water evaporates, and rushing or overheating can scorch the sugar or leave the set uneven.

Swap the peach

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (apple, pear, quince, sugar):

  1. Plumfits better
  2. Apricotfits about as well
  3. Peachthe original
  4. Vanillafits about as well

Fit is the average pairing score against apple, pear, quince, sugar. 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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