Quince looks a bit like a pear - oval and irregular, with a fuzzy type of coating on its yellow-greenish skin which is often mistaken for mold. It is hard textured and the raw taste of this fruit certainly will not tickle your taste buds and you’ll discover it’s inedible. The raw taste is the opposite of the perfume rose scent that raw quince releases into the air which is mesmerizing to me – it’s like you want to eat the scent from the air.
(thinly sliced quince with blue cheese in a Winter salad)
Cooking quince does the trick and makes a beautiful jelly or quince butter which has a great texture since it has high pectin content and lends it an ideal mouthfulness so no commercial pectin has to be added to make a great jelly in fact.
It’s grown in Spain and Italy where you might know it as membrillo which is cooked and cooled quince and has the consistency of fruit pate and is certainly addictive in combination with cheese in particular. I consider myself lucky that quince is also grown in the Hudson Valley close to New York City which is one of the few places here in the US that it is grown.
Quince jelly cooking
Peel quince with a vegetable peeler and cut it in half cut around the core to end up with 1-inch sized pieces, and don’t worry about irregularly shaped pieces. Transfer cut pieces into a pot then cover with water then add honey (1 teaspoon per quince). I like to add vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick – it’s optional though. Cover the pot with a tight fitting lid than cook quince for two hours or so on low heat setting (check every 30 minutes, you might have to add more water occasionally) at this point quince pieces should be soft (pierce with a small knife to check on that) and can be pureed in a kitchen food processor.
Chef’s Tip: mix quince with equal amounts of apples then cook in the same way described above for a perfumed applesauce.
(grilled quince with duck sausage and onion confit)
Versatile companion
Recently I have paired quince jelly with venison and duck which was a gustatory match; it worked perfectly in a wintery crumbled blue cheese and endive salad which I tossed with a spoonful of quince jelly, olive oil and vinegar. To me it tastes more on the savory side but but it will also work beautifully on the holiday breakfast, tea or dessert table with ginger bread or dried fruit cake.
