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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserve made from quince pulp, sugar, and water, cooked until thickened.

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 ↓

Quince Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the pulp

  1. Slice the quinces into a preserving pan and add enough water to cover them.

  2. Heat on the stove and stew until reduced to a pulp, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.

  3. Pass the pulp through a fine sieve to remove skin and seeds.

Make the marmalade

  1. Weigh the pulp and add ½ lb of broken sugar for each lb of pulp.

  2. Return the mixture to the heat and stir continuously until it thickens to a marmalade consistency.

  3. Test by dropping a little on a cold plate; if it jellies, it's done.

Jar and cover

  1. Pour into jars while hot, let cool, and cover with oiled paper cut to fit the jar mouths.

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

Quince pulp
Provides the fruit body and pectin that allow the marmalade to thicken and set.
Loaf sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it thicken and set as it cooks down.

The step that matters

Stir continuously while thickening. Sugar-rich fruit pulp scorches easily on the base of the pan once it thickens, giving a burnt taste and dark colour. Constant stirring spreads the heat and keeps the mixture from sticking while the sugar concentrates and the pectin sets.

“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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