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 Sticks
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the quinces
Pare, core, and cut quinces into strips one or two inches long.
In a kettle, combine quinces with an equal amount of sugar and cover with water.
Cook and pack
Boil until the fruit is tender and pink, then place in jars.
Cover the parings and cores of the quinces with water and cook until tender.
Strain off the juice, make it into jelly, and pour over the quinces while hot.
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 and its pectin-rich flesh, which turns tender and pink as it cooks.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and helps the quince strips hold their shape and syrup.
The step that matters
Boiling until tender and pink. Quince is firm and fibrous, so it must cook long enough to soften fully. Stopping early leaves it tough, while the pink colour develops as the fruit cooks.
“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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