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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A preserve made from quince pulp and sugar, cooked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 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 Marmalade

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare and quarter the quinces, removing the cores.

  2. Place the quinces in a saucepan with the parings and cover with spring water.

  3. Cover the saucepan and stew over low heat until the quinces are soft and pink.

  4. Remove the quinces from the parings and mash them into a pulp.

Make the marmalade

  1. For every pound of quince pulp, add an equal weight of finely granulated sugar and enough water to dissolve it.

  2. Boil the mixture, skimming off any foam, then add the quince pulp.

  3. Gently boil for 45 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.

  4. Once cooled, transfer to jars and seal tightly for storage.

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

Full ripe quinces
Provide the fruit pulp, which sets into a firm, sliceable marmalade as it cooks down.
Line loaf sugar
Sweetens the pulp and helps it thicken and preserve when boiled down.
Spring water
Softens the quinces during stewing and dissolves the sugar before the pulp is added.

The step that matters

Stirring during the 45-minute boil. Pulp and sugar are thick and scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring prevents sticking and burning, which would give a bitter, dark flavour.

“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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