Name: Citron and Quince Preserves
Ingredients: 1 pound citron, cut into 1-inch pieces; 1 pound quinces, washed, peeled, quartered, cored, and halved; ¾ pound white sugar; Alum water; Water

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 ↓

Citron and Quince Preserves

Ingredients

1 pound citron, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 pound quinces, washed, peeled, quartered, cored, and halved
¾ pound white sugar
Alum water
Water

Directions

Prepare the citron

Boil the citron pieces in medium strong alum water for 30 minutes.
Drain and boil the citron in fresh water until tender and the color changes.

Prepare the quince

Boil the quince cores and parings in water to cover for 1.5 hours.
Remove the cores and parings, then add the prepared quince to the liquid.
Boil the quince until they begin to soften, then add the citron and ¾ pound of sugar for every pound of fruit.

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

Citron: Forms the main fruit body and becomes tender and translucent when simmered.
Quinces: Provide pectin and firm texture, helping the preserve set and gel.
White sugar: Sweetens the preserve and helps it set by drawing water out of the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil the quince until they begin to soften, then add the citron and sugar. Quince needs to soften before the sugar is added, because sugar added too early can toughen fruit fibers and slow softening. Adding the citron and sugar at the right moment helps the fruit cook evenly and the preserve 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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Citron and Quince Preserves