Quinces are my favourite fruit. They grow on an elegant, sculptural tree, they look beautiful in a fruit bowl and fill the kitchen with their delicate scent – like roses and apples and powder and grass.
Apart from being beautiful to have around, they also make the most amazing jam. More accurately, it’s a jelly as there is no fruit pulp in it and if you’ve done things right, you’ll have a rose coloured, perfectly clear result.
Now it’s Autumn in Australia, so quinces are at their best. I stole mine from an abandoned property near my home. Yes – stole them. They were just sitting there on the tree, unloved and overlooked. I had no way of contacting the owner of the land and it was unfenced so I just wandered into the front yard and took some.
My fella, Geoff, was mortified and left the scene of the crime without me. It didn’t turn him against the end result though and thanks to my criminal activity we now have enough quince jelly to take us through to next Autumn. (Provided we show a little bit of restraint).
It’s great on toast or crumpets but even better with a nice, stinky cheese like a creamy blue or a gruyere. Quince jelly is not like quince paste which you usually find on a cheese board. It really is a jelly or jam consistency, like cranberry or blackcurrant jelly.
Recipe
Makes about 5 metric cups.
You will need:
Ingredients
- 2kg of washed, unpeeled quinces (about 5-6 large ones)
- 7 metric cups of water (1,750mL)
- 5 metric cups of white sugar (1.1kg) (approx – see step 8 )
Equipment
- large, heavy based saucepan (I use a stock pot)
- large plastic tub or spare saucepan – I used a Tupperware style container that is designed to hold a giant cake.
- large metal spoon
- washed jars with metal lids (if you only have plastic lids throw these away and use cellophane and rubber bands that you can buy in the supermarket as jam covers) sterilise the jars by washing in very hot soapy water, rinsing well and then placing on a tray in a low oven so they dry and stay hot.
- large square of muslin or a clean pillowcase that you are happy to destroy
- a china saucer (place this in the freezer when you start step 7
Method
- Coarsely chop the unpeeled quinces. Do not remove cores or stems but you should have washed them and removed any leaves.
- Place in saucepan with water and simmer covered for about 3 hours.
- Either line the plastic tub with the muslin square or place the pillowcase in it like a bin-liner.
- Tip the quince mixture into the lined tub and secure the muslin/pillowcase by tying the top.
- Suspend the big, squishy bag of quince over the tub. You might have to devise some sort of creative rig involving a kitchen stool, or even tie the bag to the taps over a laundry tub. As long as it hangs free and the plastic tub catches all the liquid it doesn’t matter how stupid it looks.
- DO NOT SQUEEZE THE BAG! If you do you’ll get cloudy jelly. Let the bag hang for several hours or overnight.
- Measure the liquid and return it to the stockpot (which you have washed in the mean time). Throw out the bag full of dead quinces. Put china saucer into freezer. Wash and sterilise jars and lids.
- Place an equal measure of sugar into the pot with the quince liquid. So if you have 8 cups of liquid, add 8 cups of sugar.
- Stir over low heat until the sugar dissolves.
- Once the sugar dissolves, bring the ingredients up to a rapid boil.
- At this stage, any impurities will come to the top as a white foam. Use the metal spoon to skim this foam off. Don’t worry if you can’t get every last bit – just get as much as possible.
- Boil like crazy for about 30 minutes. Watch that it doesn’t boil over.
- Now test it. Turn the heat down. Take the saucer out of the freezer and drop a small amount of the jelly onto the saucer. Put saucer back into freezer for a few minutes to bring the jam back to room temperature. Remove from freezer and test by touching the jelly. It should feel like a, well, a jelly and not a liquid. It should not run but sit as a gelled blob on the saucer. If it’s not ready yet, boil the liquid for another 5 minutes and test again. Repeat until it gels.
- Take the hot, sterilised jars out of the oven and carefully fill them. If you are using metal lids, put them on now. If you are using cellophane wait until the jars are cool enough to touch before adding the covers and rubber bands. Jelly will set as it cools.
- Store in a cool, dark place.
