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 Preserves
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Pare and core the quinces.
Boil the quinces until very tender.
Make the syrup
Make a syrup with 1 pound of sugar for each pound of quinces.
Remove all the scum from the syrup.
Cook the preserves
Boil the quinces in the syrup for 30 minutes.
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.
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 body and natural pectin that helps the preserves set and hold shape.
- Sugar
- Adds sweetness and, at this concentration, helps preserve the fruit and supports gel setting.
The step that matters
Remove all the scum from the syrup. Scum is foam and impurities that rise as sugar syrup heats. Skimming it off keeps the syrup and preserves clear and prevents off flavours from spoiling the finished fruit.
“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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