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 Marmalade
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare the pulp
Slice the quinces and put them in a saucepan, adding enough water to cover them.
Stew the quinces over the fire until they reduce to a pulp, stirring occasionally to prevent burning.
Pass the pulp through a fine sieve to remove the skin and seeds.
Weigh the pulp and add an equal weight of broken sugar.
Cook and set
Place the mixture on the fire and stir continuously with a wooden spoon until it thickens to a marmalade consistency.
Test by dropping a little on a cold plate; if it jellies, it is done.
Jar and seal
Pour into jars while hot, let cool, and cover with oiled paper cut to size.
Seal the tops with bladder or tissue paper brushed with egg white.
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
- Quince pulp
- Provides the fruit body and natural pectin that lets the marmalade set.
- Loaf sugar
- Sweetens the marmalade and, with the pectin and acid, helps it thicken and set.
The step that matters
Stirring while the marmalade thickens. Sugar-rich fruit scorches easily on direct heat, and the mixture can burn on the bottom before it reaches a set. Constant stirring spreads the heat and keeps the sugar from caramelising against the pan.
“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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