Making quince juice

One of the first posts I ever did on this blog was about making quince jelly. There I said I had made a batch in 2004 and another in 2005. The second batch was much nicer than the first because it thickened and set up as a really nice jelly. Both batches were delicious. This year is the first one since then in which we've had a really good crop of quinces.

Now I'm making the jelly again, but I'll be using a new recipe and a new kind of sugar — one that has pectin in it. That should reduce the cooking time. Actually, quinces supposedly contain a lot of pectin, as do apples.

The relatively big apple in this picture gives you an idea
how big quinces can get. One of these bopped me on the head.

What you do is chop up the fruit — skin, core, seeds, and all — and put the pieces in a big pot. Barely cover them with water and put them on to simmer for at least an hour after the liquid comes to a boil. What you end up with is a certain quantity of unsweetened juice that you can use for making jelly. Strain the cooked quinces through a cloth to filter the juice. The process is the same as for making apple jelly.

Slightly smaller quinces

What are quinces? They are a big, hard, lumpy fruit that looks kind of like a pear on steroids. You can't really eat quinces raw, at least not until they have started to rot or ferment. You can, however, peel, core, and slice them and then pan-cook the slices in butter until they are golden and caramelized. They're good served with pork, duck, or turkey.

Cut the quinces up into big chunks and simmer them for
an hour or more with their skins, cores, and seeds.

Immature quinces are covered in a kind of fuzz, kind of like peaches. But the quince fuzz rubs right off and usually is all gone by the time the fruit is ripe anyway. If the ones you use are fuzzy, just rub them with a cloth under running water before cutting them up.

The Wikipedia article on quinces says:

Most varieties of quince are too hard, astringent and sour to eat raw unless 'bletted' (softened by frost and subsequent decay). They are used to make jam, jelly and quince pudding, or they may be peeled, then roasted, baked or stewed. The flesh of the fruit turns red after a long cooking time. The very strong perfume means they can be added in small quantities to apple pies and jam to enhance the flavour.

Discard the quince pulp and use the juice for jelly.

Quinces are grown all around the world. In French, a quince is called un coing (pronounced the same as un coin, with the nasal vowel — the final G is silent). The quince tree has an unusual name: it's un cognassier. An apple tree produces pommes (in France) and is called un pommier. The tree that produces poires is un poirier; abricots grow on un abricotier. And so on. The cognassier fits the pattern, more or less.

A bowlful of quince juice

Quinces make delicious jelly. For somebody who can't eat apples or other red fruit, it's a great alternative. I haven't actually made the jelly yet — that's for later today or even tomorrow.

P.S. The weather yesterday was actually much nicer than the weather forecasters had predicted. The sun came out by mid-morning and it stayed at least partly sunny all day. Callie and I got a good walk in the afternoon. This morning, however, it's raining again.