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Quinces, to Pickle

A sweet pickle made by simmering quinces in honey and water, then straining and storing the fruit.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and honey work together. They rank in the top 13% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 24 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Quinces, to Pickle

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Pare and cut the quinces into small pieces.

Make the syrup

  1. In a large saucepan, combine the quinces, water, and honey.

  2. Mix well and set over low heat for 30 minutes.

  3. Strain the liquid into a jar.

  4. Let it cool completely.

Pickle and store

  1. Wipe the quinces dry and add them to the jar.

  2. Cover the jar 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 + honeytop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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; cooking softens their firm flesh and gives the pickle its flavor.
Honey
Adds sweetness and body to the liquid, balancing the fruit's tartness.

The step that matters

Let the liquid cool completely before adding the quinces. Hot liquid would keep cooking the fruit, making it soft and mushy. Cooling first keeps the quinces firmer and helps them stay intact in the jar.

“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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