Why it works: Sugar and quince 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 ↓
To Preserve Whole or Half Quinces
Ingredients
Directions
Make the pippin jelly
In a pot, add the sliced golden pippins to the boiling water.
Cover and boil quickly until the water turns into a thick jelly.
Make the syrup
Scald the quinces.
For every pint of pippin jelly, add 1 pound of sugar and boil, skimming off any foam.
Add whole quinces to the syrup and boil fast; for halved quinces, boil separately.
Check the syrup for jelling by placing some in a glass before removing from heat.
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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Sugar + quincetop 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 flesh and the characteristic flavour and firm texture of the preserve.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the preserve and, with the pectin-rich jelly, helps it set.
- Golden pippins
- Supply natural pectin that helps the preserve thicken and set.
The step that matters
Check the syrup for jelling by placing some in a glass before removing from heat. Sugar syrups set when enough sugar and pectin are concentrated by boiling. Testing a cold sample shows whether it will gel, so the pot is not overcooked, which would make the preserve stiff, or undercooked, which would leave it runny.
“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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