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-paste
Ingredients
Directions
Cook the quinces
Stew quinces in enough water to cover them by three parts until tender.
Remove the quinces and let them cool.
Pass them through a sieve.
Reduce the puree over a clear fire, stirring constantly.
Make the paste
Weigh the fruit and mix it with an equal amount of pounded sugar.
Stir the mixture continuously until it becomes dry enough to form a ball and detach from the pan.
Press the paste into shallow pans.
Cut and store
Cut into small squares once cooled.
If needed, dry the squares gently with low heat.
Store the dried squares in tin cases with parchment paper between them.
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 pectin and flavour that set and scent the paste.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the paste and, as it concentrates, helps it thicken and firm into a sliceable block.
The step that matters
Stirring the reduced puree until it pulls from the pan. Stirring constantly keeps the thick puree from scorching on the base. Cooking until it forms a ball and leaves the pan sets the sugar and fruit pectin into a firm paste that holds its shape when cut.
“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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