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Dessert

Quince Cream

A custard made from quince pulp, powdered sugar, and stiff egg whites.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and egg are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 21% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 122,807 recipes. Both carry 2-nonenal, which smells fatty, green. The science ↓

Quince Cream

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Pare and quarter the quinces.

  2. Scald them until soft.

  3. Pulp the quinces through a fine sieve.

Make and serve the custard

  1. Mix the quince pulp with an equal weight of powdered sugar.

  2. Beat the egg whites until they are very stiff and white.

  3. Combine the mixture and serve.

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 + eggtop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together122,807 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Quince + eggtop 33% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together222 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-heptenal (green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Provide the fruit flavour and the thick, pectin-rich pulp that gives the custard its body.
Powdered sugar
Sweetens the quince pulp and balances its natural tartness.
Egg whites
Beaten to a stiff foam, they lighten the custard and add airy structure.

The step that matters

Beating the egg whites until very stiff. Whites must be beaten until they hold firm peaks so they trap air and lighten the custard. Under-beaten whites collapse when folded in, and over-beaten whites turn dry and grainy.

Swap the quince

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

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Raisinfits better
  3. Lemonfits better
  4. Quincethe original

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, egg. 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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