Name: Quince Marmalade
Ingredients: 4 cups water (from boiling quinces); skins and cores of quinces (discard worm-eaten or discolored ones); 1 pound quinces, quartered; ¾ pound sugar

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

4 cups water (from boiling quinces)
skins and cores of quinces (discard worm-eaten or discolored ones)
1 pound quinces, quartered
¾ pound sugar

Directions

Make the pectin liquid

Save the water used to boil the quinces and add the skins and cores.
Boil for about 30 minutes.
Strain through a colander to keep only the pulp.

Cook the marmalade

Add the reserved quince quarters and sugar to the juice.
Boil slowly for about 1.5 hours, stirring occasionally and breaking the quinces into small pieces.

Finish

Pour the finished marmalade into glasses or bowls to cool.

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 + 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: Supply the fruit flesh and natural pectin that help the marmalade thicken and set.
Sugar: Sweetens the marmalade and, with the cooking, helps it thicken and keep its set.

The step that matters

Boil slowly for about 1.5 hours. Long, gentle cooking lets the pectin and fruit break down and concentrate, so the marmalade sets. Stirring prevents sticking and scorching on the bottom of the pan.

“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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Quince Marmalade