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Dessert

Quince Tapioca

A sweet pudding made from tapioca, preserved quince, and a meringue topping.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Nutmeg and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 11,318 recipes. Both carry beta-phellandrene, which smells minty, terpene. The science ↓

Quince Tapioca

Oven, in the book's wordsA slow oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Cook the tapioca

  1. Cook tapioca in water until clear and thick like jelly.

  2. Sweeten to taste and flavor with nutmeg and lemon juice.

Assemble and bake

  1. Layer the tapioca in a buttered pudding dish with chopped preserved quinces.

  2. Whip the egg whites until stiff, then gradually add powdered sugar.

  3. Spread the meringue over the top and bake in a 300°F (150°C) oven until delicately browned.

Serve

  1. Serve with the syrup from the fruit or with whipped cream.

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. Nutmeg + lemontop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together11,318 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  2. Nutmeg + quincetop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together118 recipes

    Shared aroma: alpha-terpineol (lilac, floral).

  3. Lemon + quincetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-hexenal (green, leafy).

  4. Nutmeg + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together24,377 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  5. Lemon + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,227 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Tapioca
Thickens as it cooks in water, giving the pudding its jelly-like body.
Egg whites
Whipped into a foam that bakes into a light, set meringue topping.
Preserved quinces
Adds fruity flavor, aroma and tartness, and syrup for serving.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the meringue and helps stabilize the whipped egg white foam.
Lemon juice
Adds acidity that brightens the sweetness and the fruit flavor.

The step that matters

Whipping the egg whites. Whites must be beaten until stiff, with sugar added gradually, so the foam holds air and bakes into a stable meringue. Any fat, such as yolk, or underbeating causes the foam to collapse or weep.

Swap the quince

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (sugar, nutmeg, lemon, egg, butter):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Orangefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, nutmeg, lemon, egg, butter. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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