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Preserved Quinces

A preserved quince recipe using sugar, water, and isinglass to make a syrup that coats the fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 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 ↓

Preserved Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Pare and core the quinces, then cut them into quarters.

  2. Boil the fruit in water until tender.

  3. Weigh the fruit, then add an equal amount of sugar to the fruit.

Make the syrup

  1. In a preserving kettle, combine the sugar with water and dissolved isinglass.

  2. Heat the mixture until the sugar dissolves.

  3. Boil and skim the mixture until no more scum rises.

  4. Pour the syrup into another vessel and clean the kettle.

  5. Return the syrup to the kettle.

Cook and preserve

  1. Add the fruit to the kettle and boil the mixture for about 1.5 hours until the fruit is translucent.

  2. Remove the fruit one piece at a time and place the fruit on broad dishes.

  3. Strain the syrup.

  4. When lukewarm, pour the syrup over the fruit in jars.

  5. Once cooled, cover the fruit with brandy paper and seal the jars tightly.

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 that becomes tender and translucent in the syrup.
Sugar
Sweetens the fruit and, in quantity, helps preserve it by drawing out water.
Isinglass
A gelatin-like clarifier that helps the syrup set and stay clear.

The step that matters

Skimming the syrup until no more scum rises. Scum is impurities that rise as sugar syrup boils. Removing them keeps the syrup clear and stops off flavors and cloudiness from spoiling the preserve's appearance.

“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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