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 ↓
To Preserve Quinces Whole
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare
Select the largest and finest quinces, reserving poorer ones for jelly.
Remove the cores and peel the quinces.
Cook in syrup
Boil the quinces in water until tender.
For each pound of quinces, use one pound of sugar to make the syrup.
Boil the quinces in the syrup until they are clear.
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.
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Quince + sugartop 21% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked 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
- Main fruit; cooking softens its flesh until it turns tender and clear.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the fruit and, as a thick syrup, helps preserve it and keep it clear.
The step that matters
Boiling the quinces in the syrup until clear. Sugar syrup draws water out of the fruit and firms and clarifies it slowly. Boiling too hard or too long can break the quinces apart, so the fruit should be watched closely until it looks clear and is still whole.
“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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