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Dessert

Quince Preserve

A preserved quince dish made with sugar, water, and lemon.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 4 ingredients
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Why it works: Quince and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 336 recipes. Both carry trans-2-hexenal, which smells green, leafy. The science ↓

Quince Preserve

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Core and quarter the quinces, then weigh them and measure out an equal quantity of white sugar.

  2. Place the peelings and cores in a preserving kettle, cover with water, and boil for 30 minutes.

Cook the quinces

  1. Strain the mixture through a fine sieve and return the juice to the kettle.

  2. Boil the quinces in the juice a little at a time until tender, then lift them out with a drainer and place on a dish.

  3. If the liquid is scarce, add more water.

  4. Once all quinces are cooked, add the sugar and boil for 10 minutes before adding the quinces back in.

  5. Let them boil until they change color, about 1 hour and 15 minutes, on low heat.

  6. Occasionally slip a silver spoon under the quinces to prevent burning, but do not stir.

Jar

  1. Slice the lemons thinly and place a slice or two in each jar when filling with the fruit.

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 + lemontop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together336 recipes

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

  2. Sugar + lemontop 18% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together53,532 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-nonenal (fatty, green).

  3. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,444 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).

Sugar and lemon barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 53,532 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

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 flavor and pectin that helps the preserve set.
White sugar
Adds sweetness and thickens the preserve as it cooks down.
Lemons
Add acidity and a bright aroma that balances the sweetness.

The step that matters

Simmer the quinces gently without stirring. Sugar and fruit left on high heat or stirred can scorch on the bottom of the pan. Low heat and an occasional lift with a spoon let the quinces color and cook evenly without breaking apart.

Swap the quince

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, lemon. 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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