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Dessert

Baked Quinces

A dessert of quinces stewed, baked in syrup, served cold with cream.

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 ↓

Baked Quinces

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare

  1. Pare, quarter, and seed the quinces.

  2. Stew the parings in clear water until tender.

  3. Make a syrup with the stewing water and sugar.

Bake and serve

  1. Pour the syrup over the quinces in a covered baking dish.

  2. Bake at 300°F (150°C) until a straw pierces them easily.

  3. Remove the quinces and boil down any excess juice to the desired amount.

  4. Pour the reduced juice over the quinces.

  5. Serve cold with plain or whipped cream.

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
Firm fruit that softens during slow baking and turns tender and rosy in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the syrup and helps it thicken and cling to the fruit as it reduces.

The step that matters

Boil down the excess juice. Reducing the juice concentrates its sugars and pectin, so it sets into a glossy, flavourful glaze rather than a thin, watery liquid that dilutes the fruit.

“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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