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Quince Marmalade

A preserve made from quince pieces, sugar, and water, boiled until thick.

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 quinces

  1. Wash, pare, core, and cut the quinces into small pieces.

  2. In a kettle, place the parings and cores with enough water to cover them and boil slowly until soft.

Make the marmalade

  1. In a porcelain kettle, combine the quinces and sugar.

  2. Strain the liquid from the parings over the quinces and sugar, then cover.

  3. Boil the mixture over a clear fire until smooth and thick, stirring frequently to prevent sticking.

  4. Once cooled, transfer the marmalade to glass 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. 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 the fruit body and natural pectin that thickens the marmalade as it cooks.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and helps set the marmalade into a thick, spreadable texture.
Quince parings and cores
Release pectin-rich liquid when simmered, which helps the marmalade gel.

The step that matters

Boil until smooth and thick while stirring frequently. Sugar-rich fruit sticks and scorches on the bottom of the kettle easily. Frequent stirring spreads heat evenly and prevents burning, while cooking until the mixture thickens lets pectin and sugar set properly.

“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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