Name: Baked Quinces
Ingredients: 6 ripe quinces; powdered sugar; cream

Why it works: Sugar and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 9% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 43,450 recipes. Both carry 2,3-butanedione, which smells butter, sweet. The science ↓

Baked Quinces

Ingredients

6 ripe quinces
powdered sugar
cream

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare and bake

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).
Wipe the quinces dry and place them in the oven to bake.

Finish and serve

Once done, remove the skins.
Sift powdered sugar over the baked quinces.
Serve with cream.

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.

Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together43,450 recipes

Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together1,444 recipes

Shared aroma: 1-penten-3-one (fish, pungent).
Quince + creamtop 28% of all pairs

Smell alikemoderate

Cooked together203 recipes

Shared aroma: 2-nonanone (fruity, floral).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces: Softens as it bakes and develops a sweeter, mellower flavor and tender texture.
Powdered sugar: Adds light sweetness to the surface of the fruit.
Cream: Adds richness and fat that balances the tart fruit.