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Dessert

Pear, and Quince

A preserved fruit spread made from pears and quinces simmered with water and brown sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Pear and quince match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 133 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Pear, and Quince

Ingredients

Directions

Stew the fruit

  1. Combine pears and water in a brass vessel.

  2. Stew for about an hour until it becomes jam.

Sweeten and finish

  1. Add brown sugar only after the fruit has softened.

  2. Stir constantly after adding sugar.

  3. Transfer the marmalade into jars once it is done.

Cool and seal

  1. Allow to cool completely before sealing the jars.

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

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

  2. Pear + sugartop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,079 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

  3. Sugar + quincetop 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

Pears
Provide the bulk of the fruit pulp and mild, fresh sweetness.
Quinces
Add natural pectin, helping the marmalade set as it cools.
Brown sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, as it cooks down, helps thicken it into a preserve.

The step that matters

Adding the sugar after the fruit has softened. Sugar added to firm fruit slows its softening and can leave it tough. Once the fruit is soft, sugar dissolves easily and concentrates as water evaporates. Constant stirring keeps it from sticking and scorching on the base of the pan.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Plumfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against pear, 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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