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QUINCE JELLY (another way) (Cut thirty-six quinces into)
Cut thirty-six quinces into small bits, with about two quarts of water; let them boil slowly till the fruit is quite in a mash; keep them covered close, and let about a third boil away. Run the liquor through a jelly-bag, and put to every pint a pound of fine white sugar; put into a preserving-pan, and boil till thick. It should be boiled till its consistency is such, that when cold it may turn out of the mould to be used.
A straightforward long-boil quince jelly with no thermometer, no pectin and no jar sealing — the sugar and the fruit's own pectin do all the work. Two details govern success: leave the fruit whole-ish and unpeeled, and stop the boil at the right consistency rather than the right clock time.
- Quantity of fruitThirty-six quinces is roughly 10-12 lb, which will fill a very large preserving pan. A quarter batch (about 3 lb of fruit) behaves the same way and is far easier to handle.
- WaterTwo quarts may not be enough to cover 10 lb of chopped quince; add water until the fruit is just submerged if needed. The instruction to boil away a third matters more than the exact starting volume.
- Do not peel or coreThe peel and cores hold much of the fruit's pectin, which is why this recipe needs none added. The pips are also rich in mucilage, which adds body, though it is the pectin that sets the jelly; chop the fruit skin, core and all, and discard nothing until after straining.
- Straining"Run the liquor through a jelly-bag" means let it drip, unpressed, for several hours or overnight. Squeezing the bag forces through fine pulp and gives a cloudy jelly.
- Sugar ratioA pound of sugar to a pint of juice is near equal measure, roughly 2 cups of sugar to a pint of liquid (note that an imperial pint is 20 fl oz, not 16). Warm the sugar or add it to hot juice off the heat and stir until fully dissolved before returning to the boil.
- Judging the boilSetting point is 220F (104C) on a sugar thermometer, or the cold-saucer test: a spoonful on a chilled plate wrinkles when pushed. Because this jelly is meant to be firm enough to unmould, take it a shade past a soft set — a minute or two beyond the first wrinkle.
- Skimming and colourSkim the foam as it rises. Quince juice starts pale and turns amber to rose-pink with prolonged boiling; deeper colour goes with longer cooking, and so with a more concentrated, faintly caramelised flavour.
- Moulding and yieldA firm quince jelly of this type sets stiff enough to slice, and the recipe's reference to a mould implies it was turned out rather than potted. Yields vary widely; expect several pints of juice from 12 lb of fruit and a broadly similar volume of finished jelly. Store covered in the refrigerator unless you are processing it in sterilised jars by current canning guidance.
Quince was a standard European jelly fruit long before bottled pectin: it is astringent and hard raw, but rich enough in pectin and aromatic when cooked that it sets on sugar alone. The word marmalade comes from the Portuguese marmelo, quince, and originally meant a stiff quince paste cut into blocks, related to Spanish membrillo and Portuguese marmelada. That tradition helps explain the instruction that the jelly be firm enough to "turn out of the mould": a sliceable confection rather than a spreadable one.