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 ↓
Baked Quinces
Ingredients
Directions
The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.
Prepare
Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Core and thoroughly rub the quinces.
Bake and serve
Place the quinces in baking pans and fill the centers with pulverized sugar.
Bake until tender, then serve cold, with or without cream.
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.
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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 firm fruit that softens into a tender, sweet flesh when baked.
- Pulverized sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and melts into the centers, adding moisture and flavour.
The step that matters
Bake until tender. Quinces are hard and astringent when raw, so they need enough time in the oven for starches to break down and the flesh to soften and turn sweet. Stopping early leaves them firm and tart.
“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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