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To Preserve Whole, or Half Quinces

A method for preserving whole or half quinces in a sweet syrup made with pippins and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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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

  1. In boiling water, add sliced pippins and boil covered until the water becomes a thick jelly.

  2. Scald the quinces.

Make the syrup and cook the quinces

  1. For every pint of pippin jelly, add 1 pound of sugar and boil, skimming clear.

  2. Add whole quinces to the syrup and boil fast, skimming as needed.

  3. Test syrup for jelling before removing from heat.

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. Sugar + quincetop 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 main fruit flavour and firm texture that holds its shape in the preserve.
Pippins
Release natural pectin into the water, which helps the mixture thicken and set.
Sugar
Sweetens the preserve and, at high concentration, helps preserve it and aid setting.

The step that matters

Test syrup for jelling before removing from heat. Sugar, pectin and acid must reach the right balance to set. Removing the syrup too early leaves it runny, while overcooking makes it stiff and dark.

“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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