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Dessert

Quince Salmon

A sweet made from quince and clarified sugar, boiled and poured into fish-shaped molds to set.

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 Salmon

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Rub the quinces.

  2. Cut the quinces.

  3. Boil the quinces until just tender.

  4. Peel the quinces.

  5. Cut the quinces into small pieces.

Make the paste

  1. Combine the quinces with clarified sugar in a pot.

  2. Boil the mixture over low heat, stirring constantly, until it turns red.

Mold and set

  1. Pour the mixture into fish-shaped molds.

  2. Let the mixture set.

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 natural pectin and tart flavor, helping the paste gel and taste fruity rather than just sweet.
Clarified sugar
Adds sweetness and, as water evaporates, concentrates into a thick mass that helps the paste hold its shape.

The step that matters

Boil over low heat while stirring constantly. The sugar and fruit can scorch on the bottom of the pot if left unattended. Gentle heat with constant stirring lets water evaporate evenly, so the mixture thickens and sets firm when cooled rather than burning or staying runny.

“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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