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 ↓
How to Preserve Quinces Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the syrup
Weigh your quinces and use the same weight in sugar.
Combine 1 pint of water with each pound of sugar to make a syrup and clarify it.
Cook the quinces
Core and peel the quinces, then add them to the syrup.
Boil until the syrup is clear.
Soak quince kernels in water overnight, then strain and add to the quinces.
Boil the quinces with the kernels for just one more time.
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 that becomes tender and flavourful as it cooks in the syrup.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, in a syrup, helps preserve it.
- Quince kernels
- Release natural pectin into the cooking liquid, helping it set into jelly.
The step that matters
Boil the quinces with the kernels for just one more time.. Quince fruit needs long cooking to turn tender and rosy, and the pectin from the kernels only sets the liquid if it is heated enough. Stopping too early leaves the fruit firm and the jelly loose.
“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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