lest you think i'm a cool cat. i thought i'd share this with you, an email i sent to julia of what julia ate (the quince queen IMO) upon my initial discovery of local quince:
| show details Oct 20 |
what do i do!!!???
what should i do?
i don't think i've ever actually seen/held one before.
omg. the scent!
-tigress
...well of course i went for the membrillo first. (although, i gotta admit, it's back to the drawing board on that one) and then i did this - a winner. then i got my paws on another 5 pounds of local quince!
this time i wanted to preserve the wonderfully exotic nature of quince to enjoy throughout the year without a whole heck-of-a-lot of embellishment. i looked to quince's native home for inspiration; persia, turkey and their surrounds. in fact, i had a wonderful little bottle of gür that i brought home from last summer's trip to turkey that was just hanging out, waiting to meet it's match.
quince in rose syrupjuice of 2 lemons
2 & 1/2 cups sugar
approximately 20 black peppercorns
1/4 cup rose water
pint mason jars
yield: 4 pints
1. prepare the canner and jars for hot water bath processing. no need to sterilize as you will be processing for over 10 minutes. just make sure they are hot when you fill them.
2. prepare a large bowl with cold water. place 4 cups water in a large saucepan and add the quince whole. bring to the boil and boil for 2 minutes. take quince out with slotted spoon and drop in cold water. reserve the 4 cups water in the saucepan.
3. remove quince from the bowl, and refill with fresh cold water, add juice of two lemons. one by one peel, core and cut quinces into eighths. drop directly into lemon-water to avoid discoloration.
4. add sugar to the reserved 4 cups of water in pan and heat on low until sugar is dissolved. add quince slices and bring to the boil. simmer gently for 12 minutes, partially covered. turn off heat.
5. remove all 4 pint jars from canning pot. add 5 whole black peppercorns to each. remove quince from syrup with a slotted spoon and fill each jar with quince to 1/2 inch headspace. tap the jars on a towel covered counter to create more space and release air.
6. add 1/4 cup rose water and return syrup to the boil. once boiled turn off heat and pour over fruit into jars. leaving 1/2 inch headspace. use a plastic chopstick or plastic knife to gently remove air bubbles.
7. hot water bath process for 20 minutes.
tigress can jam november: pomes - success!
though i know that rose water is heavily used in persian and turkish sweets, there was a moment when i thought it may be too sweetly perfumed for the quince's heady scent. alas, the rose and the quince do not compete, rather they marry together to form an harmonious bouquet of exotica. on ice cream this is a no-brainer, but i have something else in mind: a rose n' quince tarte tatin or custard tart will most definitely find its way out of a couple of these jars sometime in the cold winter months.
learning: not so much a learning as a, yes! with this recipe i came away with about 3/4 of a pint of syrup left. the scent is incredible alone, and i cannot wait to use this rose n' quince syrup in a holiday cocktail. it has got me thinking back to that summer ripple-craze through the can jam, that had many of us bottling up fruit syrups for luscious warm weather cocktails. i may have to start a new fall tradition...
Oh my, I think I can smell the beauty from here. This just sounds amazing, yet not as amazing as it would be to visit Turkey - could I be more jealz? Lovely, just lovely!
ReplyDeleteI might have to give up my seat as quince queen! This is so beautiful, and what I like best about it (aside from rose water and peppercorns!) is that it's not cooked for ever like most quince recipes. Beautiful, beautiful. And your ideas for tarte tatin--exquisite!
ReplyDeleteI love this! Quince does smell heavenly and I love how it turns pink when cooked. I need to scour my farmer's market for a few beauties.
ReplyDeleteTigress you need to make quince soda! Make a ginger bug and ferment with it. It's divine...and so is this post.
ReplyDeleteI was thrilled to find some quince at my farmer's market. I made jam and will be returning to get some to make a syrup--something I am hoping will preserve more of that amazing fragrance. I just wanted to leave it on my counter all week.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to reading about the paste fail too!
My parents have a mature quince tree, so I've had lots of quince to play with. My initial attempts at quince paste were a disaster, but a recipe from a neighbor/blogger in Seattle has been a revelation, and my membrillo now comes out wonderful every time. There are several other quince recipes on her blog as well. http://locallypreserved.blogspot.com/2010/10/membrillo-quince-paste.html
ReplyDeleteI'v still got 10 pounds of quince to play with, so I will def try the rose syrup recipe. But where do I get rose syrup?
I am just thinking that your Quince in Rose Syrup would make a really nice hostess gift over the holidays. Thanks for the inspiration.
ReplyDeleteI thought my intitial membrillo attempts were quasi-failures: nice taste, but didn't set up as paste. I thought I had a nice bunch of quince butter, with a slightly dried out fruit leather skin. So I wrapped it, froze some, refrigerated some, forgot about it and when I finally opened tasted the refrigerated batch several months later it had set up into lovely paste.
ReplyDeleteLast year, after cooking putting in the oven at low temp to dry out some, I left it out on the kitchen counter (lightly covered with parchment) for several weeks. It set up some (still slightly soft in the center) but continued to set in the fridge. I also put one piece in the fridge loosely wrapped in wax paper and it is drying into what a Hungarian friend calls quince cheese.
Long way of saying that none of the recipes I followed yielded a paste in the timeframe stated, but jelled over the course of months.
Sounds tasty. Also, I love the vintage Ball Ideal jar. So wish I could find some of those to add to my collection.
ReplyDeletesustainable eats - that sounds like a lovely idea! i need to try it!
ReplyDeletelisa & elaine - my quince paste actually has grown on me, particularly because i just tasted a 'store-bought' one and mine is so much better. it just goes to show you that even the 1/2 fails at home are usually better than commercial!
serendipitydiary - try etsy! :)
Looks lovely and yummy - I adore the idea of using the rose and peppercorns to offset the sweetness of the fruit.
ReplyDeleteYou have inspired me! Thanks!!
thanks so much for this! I've never canned but I just picked up a bunch of quinces at the farmers market and can't wait to try this.
ReplyDeleteMade this last night with the last of my quince. Can't wait to open up a jar!
ReplyDeleteAhhh!
ReplyDeleteHi Tigress. I thought I followed your recipe to the t when I bottled up my quince last night. Upon tasting the test batch this morning, they tasted... well, a bit puckery and not as lush as I would've expected. I looked at your recipe again, and then realized, I forgot to peel them!! Suggestions? I haven't canned them, just made batches for the refrigerator. Shall I pull them out and peel them and put them back in the syrup, do you think? Thanks!
sarah - ooh, you could do that. or maybe try peeling them just when you eat them? what do you mean by puckery tasting?
ReplyDelete