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Quince Sauce
Stew quinces and flavour with lemon and serve, pulped or quartered, as for apple sauce. Half apple may be used instead of all quince.
A two-line recipe that assumes you already know how to make apple sauce and how a quince behaves. The second assumption is the one worth spelling out, since quinces are no longer a common kitchen fruit.
- Quinces are not applesRaw quince is hard, dry, astringent and close to inedible. It needs 30 to 45 minutes of gentle simmering in a little water, well past the point where an apple would have collapsed, before it turns tender and fragrant.
- No quantities are givenWork to about 1 lb of fruit, peeled and cored, with roughly half a cup of water and sugar to taste — quince has far less natural sweetness than a dessert apple, so expect to add more than you would for apple sauce. Reduce the sugar sharply if the sauce is going alongside roast meat rather than pudding.
- Peeling and coringUse a sturdy peeler and a heavy knife; the core is woody and the seeds are set in a gritty capsule. A firm quince is easier to quarter before peeling. Discard the core entirely rather than trying to soften it.
- The colour changeQuince flesh cooks from pale cream to amber and, with longer cooking, deep rose. This is normal and is caused by the fruit's tannins, not by scorching. If you want the paler sauce, stop as soon as the fruit is soft.
- "Flavour with lemon"A strip of zest dropped into the pan and a squeeze of juice at the end is the usual reading. Quince is already high in acid, so the lemon is there for aroma; add the juice off the heat so it stays bright.
- Pulped or quarteredPulped means pressed through a sieve or mashed to a smooth sauce; quartered means the pieces are left whole in their syrup, closer to a compote. Either way the recipe directs that it be served as apple sauce is — that is, as a sharp accompaniment to rich meat.
- The apple variationHalf apple and half quince cooks faster and tastes milder. Start the quince first and add the apple for the last ten minutes, or the apple will be a puree while the quince is still firm.
- Yield1 lb of prepared fruit should give somewhere near a pint of sauce, enough as a condiment for about six.
Quince was for centuries the household fruit of preserving rather than eating out of hand: it is rich in pectin, keeps well, and its perfume survives long cooking, which is why it turns up in marmalades, cheeses and pastes across Europe and the Middle East — the word marmalade itself comes from marmelo, Portuguese for quince. Serving it as a tart sauce with rich meat follows the same logic as apple sauce with pork, and this book treats the two as interchangeable techniques. Its placement alongside pears reflects old fruit classification, which grouped quince, pear and medlar together as kindred pome fruits.