This post has been sitting in my drafts folder for the longest time! I’m posting it up now for Heidi, who has quinces in her kitchen..
Quinces are an intriguing fruit – they’re hard and inedible when raw, undergo an astonishing colour change from bright yellow to deep red as they cook, and scent the whole kitchen with their sweet fragrance while they’re boiling. We had a lot of fun with these!
- Quinces
- Sugar
- Lemon Juice (sieved)
- Homemade Pectin
1. Wash the quinces well in a sink of cold water, scrubbing off the external fur with your fingertips. Don’t peel or seed the fruit; instead chop them into small pieces and put them into a wide, deep pot. Pour in enough filtered water to float the fruit.
2. Bring the pot to boil, covered, and stew the fruit until it has completely turned to mush. Stir occasionally and watch that the pot doesn’t boil over. Once the fruit begins to soften, break it up with a potato masher to speed up the process. This can take quite a long time (a couple of hours or more, depending on the amount of fruit you have), so don’t rush it.
3. Line a colander with a clean, open-weave cloth and pour boiling water over it to sterilise. Place the colander over a large bowl and pour the quince liquid and pulp in. Allow to drain until quite dry – several hours or overnight. Don’t press the fruit in any way, or you’ll get cloudy jelly.
4. Measure the drained juice and pour it into a large wide pot. For every litre of liquid, add 1 jar of homemade pectin (300ml), the strained juice of 1 lemon and 1 kg of sugar. Bring the pot to a gentle boil, uncovered over a high heat, skimming often to remove any foam or scum that floats to the top. Foam is an indication that the pectin is working, so it’s a good thing, even though it’s a pain to skim off. Pete believes it’s actually the pectin and lemon juice working together to clarify the jelly, so the more gunk you can remove from the top of the liquid, the clearer your jelly will be.
5. Bring the jelly to a rapid boil until it reaches 220F (104.5C) on a candy thermometer and a small blob of jelly wrinkles on a cold plate when given a little poke. If the jelly has reached temperature and doesn’t set, try adding a little more sugar – if a jelly doesn’t set, it’s usually because the magic combination of pectin, sugar, fruit and acid isn’t quite in balance.
6. Once the jelly is setting up, pour it into sterilised jars, seal tightly, and hot water process by boiling them for at least 10 minutes in a large saucepan of water, with the liquid covering the lids by at least 1″ (2.5cm). Make sure you don’t pour cold water onto the hot jars, or they’ll crack – have the water already boiling and gently lower the sealed jars in.
Quince jelly has lots of applications, both savoury and sweet. I’ve been eating it on toast with Stilton cheese, but it’s also brilliant with roast lamb. I’ve used it in onion marmalade and Pete V recently pointed me to a recipe for quince aioli which looks delicious!
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See our Jam Making Primer for more tips on making jam.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
What a beautiful picture, Celia. I just love that colour – but I’m too lazy to do the work!
I am heading back to Tasmania this weekend and I am told by our caretaker that there are blossoms on the quince he planted for me, cannot wait to see it. Might be some time for my first harvest though. Roz
Hi Celia, this has nothing to do with quince, but thought you might like to know the Fiori di Sicilia from Zeb Bakes blog can be mailed to Australia, I checked with quarantine as I ‘wanted’ some :)
Hi Celia
Did you know that if you cover the quinces with brown paper under the lid while they are cooking they will turn a beautiful shade of pink. Depending on how long you cook them they will go from a medium pink to a deep ruby.
Thanks , Celia!
Quince jelly is next on my list!
Best part of it is that you don’t have to PEEL them!
They really do turn a beautiful shade.
Stilton cheese and toast and roast lamb.
Mmm- thanks for the ideas.
Amanda, we’re lucky we can so easily buy good quince jelly here – particularly from Maggie Beer in the Barossa! :)
Roz, that’s very exciting! Thanks for letting me know the WP link didn’t work for the email subscriptions – no idea what happened there…
Gillian, thank you for letting me know! I haven’t needed any yet, but it’s good to know they’re ok to come in. I keep eyeing that dough whisk at Bakery Bits and someone mentioned they were fine to ship as well to Australia.
Deb, I didn’t know that! I’ve never tried cooking the quince fruit for a dessert – only making jelly and (once) quince paste. Quince paste is HARD work, the quince has so much grit in it!
Heidi, it’s very very yummy on meat – a bit like the medlar jelly we made a while back.
I took some photos of quinces (and medlars) when I was in England this summer as they are such a rare and unusual fruit. They were odd looking things and it was difficult to see how they would ever be edible. Who would know that they could be transformed into such a jewel-like gleaming jelly.
You are too good Celia! I have to admit, I’ve never thought to make my own pectin-yet! But now I feel compelled to if only to join in on the fun! :D
I love quince jelly. Quinces seem to grow everywhere here in Italy. When I come back next year I will have a go at this. Thanks.
As you know I’m a big fan of quince jelly – I so love the colour and the scent. But I haven’t managed to get as deep a red as you’ve achieved – it looks beautiful. Just wondering about your additional use of pectin – quince has it’s own pectin and was formally used to make pectin to set other jams and jellies?
Love quinces – I poach them in sugar, as wedges, and then put them in the dehydrator. Yummo.
You must be a mind reader Celia. We’re heading out to the family farm over the weekend soon to have a ‘all hands on deck’ jam making day & while all the aunts & cousins were making the decisions on what to make I remembered Quince Jelly from my childhood, but no one it seems had the recipe, including Mum who used to make it every year (she swears she doesn’t need a recipe for it & was going to wing it)… and what do you know…… Taaa Daaaahhh…… Celia to the rescue :)
Thanks Lovely…., I’m excited about the cook-a-thon…, its one of our family traditions where all the men clear out & leave the women of the family to fill the pantry shelves, so much fun. Nothing like a whole heap of cooks in the kitchen.
Pass the cheese.
Doesn’t that look simply wonderful, I love quince jelly.
Sally, the medlars are really interesting – we were fascinated that they had to rot before we could turn them into jelly.
Lorraine, I think Choclette might be right, and you might not actually need to add pectin to this. We have lots of homemade pectin on hand, so we tend to add it to all our jams and jellies!
Choc, I wonder if the colour is related to the variety? It astonishes us every time, that yellow fruit without a hint of red can create such a crimson jelly.
Deb, that’s interesting, I didn’t know they were popular with the Italians! Thanks..
Lee, do you grow them? We’ve never tried, as I think it’s quite a big tree. They would make an interesting dried fruit!
Anna, do you have quinces on the farm at the moment? I thought they were in fruit much later here in Oz – around March – May? I reckon your mum winging it would probably be even better than our amateur attempts – I absolutely think jam making is one kitchen activity where experience counts more than anything else! As Choclette pointed out above, you might not need added pectin to make quince jelly, as quince usually has a lot of natural pectin.
Grilly, pop the loaf on the back of the bike and come on over. I’ll supply the quince jelly and blue cheese.. :)
Quinces must be in the air, or at least their fantastic perfume! I love quinces.
I had a young quince tree in the garden and it got some horrible illness and last year we took it out, after four years of nursing it and loving it and trying to make it better. It had the most beautiful blossom and then after the leaves would just turn splotchy and the fruit did the same. Fruit trees are heartbreaking when they get sick and there is no cure. If you decide to grow them do your research and choose a disease resistant variety.
Membrillo is lovely with cheese!
Thanks for the advice, Jo, but I don’t think we will grow them. No room for another large tree in the yard!
At the moment my tree is about 2m tall and gives about two dozen fruit. You can see quince flowers in my Oct 10th post.
Oh that’s right, Lee, I remember now! The one with the gorgeous pale pink flowers, right? Two dozen fruit is pretty good!
It’s just about quince season here in the UK, but it has to be a really good year before any appear in the supermarkets. It’s several years since I’ve seen any to buy.
i absolutely love how beautiful this looks. wow! it’s amazing.
Quince jelly is lovely and such a pretty colour, but I can’t believe you’ve never had it as a dessert! Stewed gently until ruby hued with a bit of sugar it makes it’s own syrup then nestled on a bed of creamy custard…. Celia, you must remedy this. I also love quinces baked under a pork roast, their sweetness matches so well with the richness of the meat. Can you tell I adore quinces? We used to have our own tree and the blossoms are the prettiest I have ever seen too….. lovely.
Celia its such a beautiful colour. I think I would be putting it by a window and watching it glint all day. Lovely!
Good to see you have your first blueberries too. I keep watching mine every day, they are on the brink of turning blue.
Wonderful, Celia! I love the intrigue with the quince, it’s old fashioned-ness and how it undergoes that amazing colour change when cooked! I haven’t tried quince jelly, (yours looks divine!), although did have a go at making some quince paste earlier this year….much fun! And speaking of the quince, I have just heaved our park bench around to sit next to (hopefully underneath one day!) our baby quince tree! :)
I love quince jam but have never really tried making it it as we don’t get the fresh fruit here. The jelly looks so beautiful and sounds delicious.
Suelle, I don’t see them at the markets here either, but we occasionally get given some from friends when they’re in season. Usually they’re homegrown, I think.
Black Book, thanks for stopping by! :)
Chef, yes ma’am, next time I lay my hands on fresh quinces, I’ll try cooking them! :)
Brydie, the two blueberry plants are still in pots, so I don’t think we’re going to get more than a handful this year. But it’s so exciting to be able to try a super-fresh berry – usually we only get them frozen or shipped up from Tassie. Good luck with your plant too! :)
Chris, I tried quince paste once and there was quite a lot of grit to sift out – did you find that with yours? Our quinces might have been a bit old, maybe you don’t have that in younger fruit.
Tes, thank you! Wish I could send you some fruit! :)
Wow, I’ve never made quince jelly before, but that looks soo nice.
Cheers, Soy! :)
I love quince chutney (my Mum’s recipe) and I am lucky enough to be given as many quinces as I can take each season so I think I’ll have a go at this (sounds like a great result for not too much effort really, given that there’s no peeling or coring and little chopping). Gorgeous jewel like colour!
Sarah, thanks! I’d love to know how your mum makes quince chutney! Is it ever gritty? Or was that a produce of our fruit being a little older, I wonder? I must try and find out next season… :)
Celia, yes, it was very gritty and it was hard work getting it through the sieve. There were four of us in the kitchen that day…so we each took turns. The fruit was also really big and I’m thinking not young at all… Still worth it for the end result though. :)
Sigh, I was hoping you were going to tell me some clever way other than sifting to get the grit out. Our one and only batch of quince paste cost me a stainless steel sieve.. ;-)
I love quince paste with cheese on crackers! Is this similar to that? I have never made jam before, I am too scared of it going off cause I haven’t canned it properly.
Hi Susan! It hasn’t got the same texture as quince paste – more like that of a redcurrant jelly. Canning is a bit tricky, and we’re a bit neurotic about things going off as well, so we always boil everything up in a hot water bath. It works fine for sweet jams, but you do need to be a bit more careful with pickled vegetables and fruit. If you don’t want to go to all that trouble, you can make small batches of sweet jams and store them in sterile jars in the fridge – they should keep well for a couple of months.
Celia I lovvvvveeeeeeee quince. I am enjoying the recipes and seeing as it has turned to custard outside – weather wise I will try a few recipes!!
Cheers
Anne