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Dessert

Quince Marmalade

A sweet preserve made from quinces, sugar, and water, cooked until thick.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 3 ingredients
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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 quinces

  1. Pare the quinces, then cut them into quarters and remove the core.

  2. Place the quinces in a saucepan and cover with the parings.

  3. Fill the saucepan nearly full of spring water and cover tightly.

  4. Stew over low heat until soft and pink.

  5. Remove the quinces from the parings and mash them into a pulp.

Make the marmalade

  1. Measure the weight of the pulp in fine loaf sugar.

  2. Add enough water to dissolve the sugar, then boil the sugar mixture.

  3. Skim the sugar mixture well.

  4. Add the quince pulp.

  5. Boil gently for 45 minutes, stirring constantly to prevent sticking.

Pot and seal

  1. Once cooled, transfer to flat pots.

  2. Seal tightly.

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. Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked 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 gives the marmalade its body and characteristic flavour.
Fine loaf sugar
Sweetens the marmalade and helps it set as the pulp thickens.

The step that matters

Boil gently for 45 minutes, stirring constantly. Quince pulp is thick and sugars scorch easily on the bottom of the pan. Constant stirring and gentle heat prevent sticking and burning while the pectin and sugar concentrate into a set preserve.

“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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