I remember the quince tree in my grandmother’s garden. It was an old tree with long branches and big yellow fruits. She didn’t use the fruits every year but when she did, she made quince paste (membrillo) from them.
Quinces are one of my favourite things of Autumn. They are very often overlooked and not many people use or even know them.
I love their uneven and bumpy surface, the colour of their skin and their amazing fragrance. I love seeing them as they grow, I absolutely love photographing them and I love them in the kitchen, too.
I have been making quince jelly for a while now (occasionally membrillo too) and below you’ll find the recipe I use. Quince jelly is not difficult to make but you’ll need quite a lot of time.
Recipe
1.6 kg quince, washed, stems removed, cored, quartered but leave the skin on
1.6 litre of water
Equivalent amount of sugar for each 120ml juice that will cook out of the quince
This amount generally gives me about 5x120ml juice.
Method
Prepare the quince. Wash them, remove stems and core but leave skin on. Cut them into quarters.
This will take just a few minutes. For this amount, I usually need 5-6 quinces, depending on their size.
Put the quince in a pot (a cast iron or similar), add the water and cook until soft.
Mash the quince - I use a potato masher - until it looks something like in the picture below. Make sure it’s not too thick as you’ll need the juice of it. If it’s too thick, add more water.
Ladle your quince pulp into a very fine mesh strainer and let the pulp strain. I often just use a linen cloth. I either keep it over a strainer or just hang it and let the juice drip.
This should take a few hours. During this time, you can prepare your jars. I sterilize them in the oven (leave them in there for 15 minutes on 150 degrees)
Once I have all the juice from the pulp, I measure it. For each 120ml juice, you’ll need about 110g sugar.
Bring the juice to the boil (I use the same thick bottom cast iron pot as earlier but clean it after I cooked the quince in it) and stir constantly so that the sugar dissolves. Skim off any foam that comes to the surface.
Your quince juice should boil and when it reaches 103-104 celsius (I use a thermometer), you can pour the jelly into your jars. Quince has a lot of pectin in it, so it will set quite quickly.
And then enjoy. We love it most with cheese.
