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QUINCE MARMALADE (another way) (Pare some quinces)
Pare some quinces that are quite ripe, cut them into quarters, core them, and put them into a saucepan; cover them with the parings; fill the saucepan nearly full of spring water, cover it close, and let the quinces stew over a slow fire till soft and of a pink colour; then pick out all the quinces from the parings; beat them to a pulp in a marble mortar or wooden bowl; put the same weight of fine loaf sugar as there is pulp into as much of the water they were stewed in as will dissolve the sugar. Boil and skim well, then put in the pulp of the quinces; boil gently for three-quarters of an hour, stirring all the time, or the marmalade will stick to the pan and burn. Put it in pots, and tie down close.
A straightforward equal-weight quince preserve, distinguished by the long slow stew under a blanket of parings that turns the fruit from pale cream to deep pink. Nothing here needs correcting, but several instructions assume equipment and sugar no longer in the cupboard.
- The pink is the pointQuinces generally turn rose-red only with prolonged gentle heat, a change usually attributed to the conversion of colourless tannin precursors into anthocyanins. Expect the stewing stage to take one to two hours at a bare simmer; a fast, short boil tends to leave the fruit pale and the marmalade dull.
- Why cover with the paringsThe skins and cores carry much of the pectin and colour. Keep them heaped over the quartered fruit and reserve the cooking liquid, which is the syrup base for the sugar.
- Loaf sugarLoaf or lump sugar was refined cane sold in cones and broken up as needed. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the equivalent; use it weight for weight with the cooked pulp, as directed.
- Beating to a pulpA mouli food mill or a potato masher does the work of the marble mortar. A food processor will aerate the pulp and pale the colour, so if you use one, pulse briefly.
- Slow fire, and the stirringQuince pulp is thick and scorches easily. Use the widest heavy pan you have, keep the heat low enough that the mixture plops rather than spits, and stir to the bottom corners throughout the three-quarters of an hour.
- Testing the setThe original gives only a time. Modern practice is to check at 220F (105C) on a sugar thermometer, or for a firm wrinkle on a chilled saucer; quince sets hard and stiffens further on cooling, so stop as soon as it holds.
- "Tie down close"The original does not say what with; a paper or cloth cover tied over the pot suited a cold larder and an equal-weight sugar load. For keeping at room temperature now, pot boiling hot into sterilised jars with two-piece lids; otherwise refrigerate and eat within a couple of months.
Quince was the original marmalade fruit: the word comes through French marmelade from Portuguese marmelada, a stiff quince paste, from marmelo, quince. Boxes of Portuguese marmelada were being imported into England by the early sixteenth century as a sweetmeat to be sliced, and only later did the term migrate to the citrus preserves that now monopolise it. Cassell's, compiled for late-Victorian households, still gives quince several methods of its own, which tells you the fruit was a normal autumn presence in British gardens before it faded into a specialist item. Its high pectin and tannin content made it valuable for setting and for the colour effect this recipe chases.