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Dessert

Quince Bread

A sweet bread made from boiled quince pulp, sugar, spices, and citrus peel.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 6 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Quince Bread

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the quinces

  1. Rub off the down from the quinces with a cloth and cut out the blossoms.

  2. Pare the quinces and boil them until very soft.

Make the paste

  1. Scrape off the pulp and weigh it; for every pound of pulp, add one pound of dry sugar.

  2. Stir the mixture well and boil it over medium heat, stirring constantly.

  3. When it is almost done, add powdered cinnamon, powdered cloves, lemon peel, and orange peel.

  4. When the mixture no longer adheres to the side of the kettle, it is done.

Cool and set

  1. Spread it out in a dish to cool in a dry, warm room.

  2. The next day, place it into boxes between paper.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Lemon + orangetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together10,634 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  3. Quince + clovetop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together164 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  4. Cinnamon + orangetop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together3,437 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

  5. Quince + cinnamontop 4% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together199 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

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

What each ingredient does

Quinces
Provide the pulp that forms the body of the bread once cooked down.
Dry sugar
Sweetens the paste and, as it cooks down, helps it thicken and firm up.
Powdered cinnamon
Adds warm, aromatic spice flavour to the paste.
Powdered cloves
Adds strong, aromatic spice flavour to the paste.
Lemon peel
Adds bright citrus aroma to the paste.
Orange peel
Adds sweet citrus aroma to the paste.

The step that matters

Cooking until the mixture no longer adheres to the kettle. Sugar and fruit pulp must be cooked down far enough that the water evaporates and the sugar concentrates. Under-cooked paste stays soft and sticky, while over-cooked paste turns stiff and can scorch on the bottom of the kettle, so the doneness check matters.

Swap the lemon

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (quince, sugar, cinnamon, clove, orange):

  1. Vanillafits better
  2. Applefits better
  3. Figfits better
  4. Lemonthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against quince, sugar, cinnamon, clove, orange. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“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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