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 ↓
Preserved Quinces
Ingredients
Directions
Prepare and boil
Pare and quarter the quinces.
Boil in enough water to keep them whole until tender.
Make the syrup and finish
Remove from water and add 1 pound of sugar for each pound of quince.
Let them sit with the sugar overnight to create a clear syrup.
Put the quinces in a kettle and boil until cooked through.
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.
-
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
- Form the fruit itself, which softens during cooking and takes on the syrup.
- Pulverized white sugar
- Draws water out of the fruit to form a syrup and acts as a preservative.
The step that matters
Boil in enough water to keep them whole until tender. Raw quince is firm because its cell walls are tight. Gentle cooking softens those walls so the fruit becomes tender. Boiling too hard or too long can break the quarters apart before they are ready to take up the sugar.
“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.
You might also like
Quince Jelly131 recipes
White Cake431 recipes
Pound Cake373 recipes
Orange Bundt Cake349 recipesThe free Flavor Lab newsletter: one surprising pairing a week and the molecular reason it works, in 60 seconds. No spam, unsubscribe anytime.
Prefer an account? Create a free account to save pairings and unlock the full chemistry.