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Dessert

Quince Pabtb

A quince paste made by stewing, sieving, reducing, and mixing with sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 2 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 Pabtb

Ingredients

Directions

Cook the quinces

  1. Stew quinces in just enough water to cover them until tender.

  2. Remove from heat and let cool.

  3. Press through a sieve.

Make the paste

  1. Weigh the fruit.

  2. Reduce the juice to a dry paste over low heat, stirring constantly.

  3. Mix with an equal amount of pounded sugar.

  4. Stir the mixture without interruption until it is dry enough to leave the pan and form a ball on the spoon.

Set and store

  1. Press into shallow pans or dishes.

  2. Cut into small squares once cool.

  3. Dry the squares gently with low heat.

  4. Store in tin cases with parchment paper between them.

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 pectin and flavour that set the paste into a firm, sliceable solid.
Pounded sugar
Adds sweetness and, once cooked down, helps the paste thicken and keep its shape.

The step that matters

Stirring the mixture without interruption. Sugar-fruit mixtures scorch easily on direct heat, and stopping to walk away can burn the bottom and cause a bitter taste. Constant stirring keeps the paste even until it pulls away from 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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