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Quinces, Brandied
Weigh some ripe quinces, and allow three-quarters of a pound of loaf sugar to each pound of fruit. Wash the quinces, put them, without paring them, into a preserving-pan, with as much water as will barely cover them, and let them simmer gently until they are so soft that a pin can be easily stuck into them; drain them, and put them aside. Boil the sugar with as much water as will moisten it, and when bubbles form in it put in the quinces; let them boil up once, and put them aside until the next day. Pour the syrup from them, and put them into wide-mouthed bottles. Boil the syrup until it is thick and clear, let it get cold, and mix with it an equal quantity of brandy. Pour this liquor over the fruit, tie bladders over the mouths of the bottles, and store in a cool dry place.
A two-day preserve that relies on sugar and brandy rather than heat processing. The fruit is cooked whole and unpeeled, which is deliberate: quince skin and core carry most of the pectin and the perfume.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar was refined sugar sold in a hard cone and broken up as needed. Ordinary granulated white sugar is the direct equivalent, weight for weight, so 12 oz sugar per 1 lb of fruit.
- Preserving-panA wide, unlined copper or brass pan with sloping sides, meant for fast evaporation. Any wide heavy stainless or enamelled pan works; avoid bare aluminium, as quince is acidic.
- The pin testQuinces are stony raw and take far longer than apples or pears, often 45 minutes to well over an hour of gentle simmering. Fruit that still resists the pin will never soften properly once sugar enters, so do not rush this stage.
- The overnight restStanding the fruit in hot syrup overnight lets sugar move slowly into the flesh instead of shocking and shrivelling it. Skipping it is likely to give tougher fruit in thinner liquor.
- Brandy proportionsEqual parts thick syrup and brandy gives a mixture of roughly 20% alcohol if the brandy is a standard 40% spirit, though moisture in the fruit will dilute it somewhat in the jar. Diluting the brandy, or using the syrup before it has reduced and cooled, works against the preservation the method depends on.
- BladdersCleaned pig's bladder was tied wet over a jar mouth and shrank airtight as it dried. Use sterilised preserving jars with two-piece lids or glass-and-clamp seals instead; a cork or a loose cover will let the brandy evaporate.
- Cores and pipsThe fruit goes in whole, pips and all. Quince seeds contain cyanogenic compounds, but the amounts in whole, uncrushed seeds inside intact fruit are not a practical concern; do not crush or grind them, and discard the cores when eating.
- Yield and servingServing -- The recipe gives no quantity; yield depends on the size and number of the fruit. Serve the fruit in wedges with cream, cold roast meats, or a plain sponge, with the liquor poured over.
Quince, Cydonia oblonga, was a standard English orchard and garden fruit long before it became the rarity it is now, valued because it is almost inedible raw and so must be preserved: it keeps its shape in sugar, sets firmly thanks to abundant pectin, and turns from pale yellow to deep amber-pink with long cooking. The word marmalade comes from the Portuguese marmelo, quince, and originally meant a stiff quince paste rather than anything made of oranges. Brandying fruit was the older cousin of bottling: sugar plus spirit preserved plums, cherries, apricots and quinces at a time when reliable heat-processing in glass was still new, and the resulting jars served as both dessert and after-dinner cordial. Cassell's, compiled for late-Victorian middle-class households with a fruit garden and a cool store cupboard, treats it as routine autumn work rather than a luxury.