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 Honey
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Grate the quinces instead of grinding them.
Combine equal parts quince pulp and sugar.
Cook
Boil and stir the mixture as you would for marmalade.
Store
Pour the mixture into glasses.
Seal the top with paraffin.
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 fruit pulp that forms the body and flavour of the spread.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the spread and helps it thicken as it cooks down.
- Paraffin
- Forms a sealing layer on top that keeps air and mould out of the jar.
The step that matters
Boil and stir the mixture as you would for marmalade. Quince pulp and sugar can scorch on the bottom of the pan if not stirred constantly. Scorching gives a burnt flavour and darkens the colour, and the mixture must be cooked long enough to thicken properly.
“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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