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Dessert

To Preserve Quinces

A method for preserving quinces by cooking them with sugar and water, then storing in jars.

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 ↓

To Preserve Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Peel and cut quinces in halves or quarters, removing the hard parts, and place them in cold water.

  2. Weigh 2-3 pounds of quinces.

  3. Boil the quinces in water over high heat until they start to soften.

  4. Reduce heat and cook the quinces slowly until completely soft.

  5. Remove the quinces and place them on a dish.

Make the syrup and preserve

  1. Weigh an equal amount of sugar.

  2. Make a thick syrup using equal parts clear water and the water from boiling the quinces.

  3. Remove any scum from the syrup.

  4. Add the quinces to the syrup.

  5. Cook the quinces slowly until they are thoroughly coated with sugar.

  6. Repeat the process with additional quinces and syrup until all are preserved.

Store

  1. Once cooled, store the preserved quinces in small jars.

  2. Cover the jars with brandy paper.

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 softens and turns tender and sweet when cooked slowly in syrup.
Sugar
Forms a thick syrup that sweetens the fruit and preserves it by drawing out its water.

The step that matters

Cook the quinces slowly until completely soft. Quinces are firm and hard to bite until well cooked. Gentle, slow heat softens the dense flesh evenly without breaking the fruit apart, so it can later absorb the syrup 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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