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Dessert

Apples and Quinces

A boiled fruit dish of apples and quinces simmered in water.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Apple and quince work together. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 506 recipes. Both carry ethyl isobutyrate, which smells fruity, ethereal. The science ↓

Apples and Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fruit

  1. Wash and pare the apples and quinces.

  2. Cut them into quarters, sixths, or eighths, and core well.

Cook

  1. Layer the quinces in the bottom of a kettle, then add a layer of apples.

  2. Repeat the layers and pour in cold water to half cover the fruit.

  3. Once boiling, reduce heat to simmer slowly for about an hour without stirring.

  4. Cover with a lid that won't blacken or leave it off entirely.

  5. When done, remove from heat and let the fruit cool in the kettle.

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. Apple + quincetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together506 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl isobutyrate (fruity, ethereal).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Firm fruit that softens slowly and turns pink-amber as it cooks gently.
Sweet apples
Soften into the cooking liquid, adding body and natural sweetness to the fruit.
Cold water
Creates steam and a moist environment so the fruit cooks through without scorching.

The step that matters

Simmering without stirring. Once boiling, the heat must be lowered to a gentle simmer. A hard boil or stirring can break the fruit apart and scorch the bottom of the kettle, while slow simmering lets the fruit become tender and evenly coloured.

“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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