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Dessert

Quince Paste

A sweet paste made from simmered quinces and sugar, then thickened and dried.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 Paste

Oven, in the book's wordsA slack oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a slack oven”. The 300°F (150°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the quinces

  1. Place whole quinces in water and simmer until tender.

  2. Pare, core, mash, and pass the quinces through a sieve.

Make the paste

  1. In a preserving pan, combine the pulp with an equal weight of fine loaf sugar.

  2. Boil the mixture until thickened.

Dry and store

  1. Spread the thickened paste onto sugared plates or papers.

  2. Dry slowly in a 300°F (150°C) oven and store between paper.

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

Quinces
Provide the fruit pulp and natural pectin that set the paste as it cooks.
Fine loaf sugar
Sweetens the paste and, when boiled down, helps it thicken and firm up for storage.

The step that matters

Boil the mixture until thickened. Sugar and quince pulp must cook long enough to drive off water and concentrate the sugar. Stopping early leaves a soft paste that will not set firmly or keep well.

“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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