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Quince Wine
This is made by mixing one quart of the juice of quinces with one pound of sugar, and then suffering the liquid to ferment. By adding to the same quantity one pint of the best French brandy and four ounces of sugar, a celebrated liqueur is prepared on the Continent, which used to be greatly prized as a cordial and stomachic when taken in small quantities--say two or three table-spoonfuls at a time.
Two preparations in one paragraph: a fermented quince wine, and an unfermented brandy cordial of the ratafia type. The second is the easier and more reliable of the two.
- Read it as two recipesThe first sentence is a fermented wine: juice plus sugar, left to work. The second appears to be a fortified cordial, brandy and sugar added to the same quantity of juice; the text does not say whether the brandy goes into fresh juice or into the finished wine, though at that proportion the spirit would largely check any ferment. Decide which you are making before you start.
- Getting juice from a quinceRaw quince is stony and yields almost nothing to a press. Grate or chop the fruit, cover with a little water, simmer until soft, then strain through a jelly bag. Expect roughly 3-4 lb of fruit for a quart of juice, and do not squeeze the bag hard or the liquid will be cloudy with pectin.
- Peel and core, skip the seedsQuince pips, like apple pips, contain amygdalin. The quantity in a few fruit is small, but there is no reason to include them; core the fruit and discard the seeds rather than pulping them in.
- Fermentation needs a starter and an airlockThe original relies on wild yeast drifting in. A packet of wine yeast gives a predictable ferment; a fermentation lock keeps vinegar bacteria and fruit flies out. Never cork a fermenting vessel tight, as the carbon dioxide will burst it.
- Time"Suffering the liquid to ferment" means several weeks. Primary fermentation runs about one to two weeks at cool room temperature, after which the wine should be racked off the sediment and left until it is clear and no longer bubbling before bottling. Quince wine is harsh young and much improved by six months.
- The cordialOne quart juice, one pint brandy, four ounces sugar makes something over 1.7 litres on imperial measures. Stir until the sugar dissolves, bottle, and leave a month or two for the flavours to marry. Strain again if a haze settles out.
- The doseTwo or three tablespoonfuls of a brandy-based cordial is a modest amount of alcohol, not a medicine. The "stomachic" claim is period language and carries no weight.
Quince was a kitchen staple long before it became a curiosity: too hard and astringent to eat raw, it repays cooking with a deep perfume and enough natural pectin to set almost anything, which is why the word marmalade descends from marmelo, Portuguese for quince. The brandied version here belongs to the broad European family of ratafias and fruit cordials, sweetened spirits infused with fruit, kernels or flowers, kept in the sideboard and offered in very small glasses. Cassell's habit of recommending such a drink as a "cordial and stomachic" reflects the long overlap between the still-room and the medicine chest in English households, where digestive complaints were routinely met with something sweet and alcoholic.