Name: Quince Wine
Ingredients: ½ peck quinces; 1 gallon water; 2 pounds granulated sugar; 2 large lemons; 1 yeast cake; 1 piece toasted bread

Why it works: Quince and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 336 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Quince Wine

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the juice

Wash and grate the quinces, avoiding the core.
Boil the grated quinces in 1 gallon of water for 15 minutes.
Strain the mixture over 2 pounds of granulated sugar.
Add the lemon peel and juice, stirring until cool.

Ferment

Mix in 1 yeast cake and a piece of toasted bread.
Let the mixture stand for 24 hours.
Remove the toast and lemon peel.
Skim the surface.
Transfer to a keg.

Bottle

Bottle the wine after 6 months.

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.

Quince + lemontop 11% of all pairs

Smell alikestrong

Cooked together336 recipes

Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).
Quince + breadtop 17% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together36 recipes

Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).
Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs

Smell alikelow

Cooked together53,532 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Lemon + breadtop 20% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together8,445 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).
Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,444 recipes

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

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces: Provide the main fruit flavour and aroma that defines the wine.
Granulated sugar: Supplies the sugar that yeast converts to alcohol during fermentation.
Yeast cake: Converts the sugars into alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.
Lemons: Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness of the wine.