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To Preserve Quinces

A method for preserving quinces in sugar 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 ↓

To Preserve Quinces

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare, core, and quarter the quinces.

  2. Put the peelings, cores, and seeds in a preserving kettle.

  3. Cover the mixture with water.

  4. Boil slowly for 20 minutes.

  5. Strain the mixture.

  6. Return the water to the kettle.

Cook the quinces

  1. Add the quinces a few at a time.

  2. Simmer the quinces gently until tender, about 5 to 10 minutes.

  3. Lay the quinces on a dish.

  4. Add sugar and a little warm water to the kettle.

  5. Let it boil for a few minutes until charred.

  6. Add all the quinces and boil without stirring until they become a clear garnet, about 1 hour.

  7. Slice the lemons thinly.

  8. Remove the seeds from the lemons.

  9. Add the sliced lemons a few minutes 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. 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 fruit that becomes tender and sets into the preserve.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the preserve thicken and keep.
Lemons
Add acidity and brightness that balance the sweetness of the fruit.

The step that matters

Boil the quinces without stirring until clear garnet. Stirring breaks up the tender quince pieces and makes the preserve cloudy and mushy. Gentle, undisturbed boiling keeps the fruit whole while the sugar syrup slowly thickens and colors it.

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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