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Quince Jelly
Choose some fine ripe quinces; peel, core and cut them up and place them in a saucepan with just as much cold water as will cover them, and stew gently until tender but not red. Strain the juice from the quinces without pressing them, measure it, and for each cupful allow an equal quantity of crushed loaf sugar. Pour the juice into a preserving-pan, and boil it for twenty minutes, then add the sugar, and boil it until reduced to the consistency of jelly, stirring it well all the time. Skim the jelly and strain it through a jelly-bag. Pour it into small jars, and when quite cold, cover it with papers, and tie down.
A high-pectin fruit and a one-to-one sugar ratio make this among the most forgiving jellies in the old books. Two things need translation: the sugar, and the storage.
- Loaf sugarLoaf sugar came as a hard cone that was nipped and crushed before use. Ordinary granulated sugar is the direct replacement, measured by volume as the recipe directs — one cup sugar per cup of strained juice.
- Keep the cores and peelsQuince pectin is concentrated in the cores, seeds and skin. Tie them in a square of cheesecloth and stew them with the fruit, then lift them out before straining; the set will be firmer and faster.
- "Tender but not red"Quince flesh turns pink to deep ruby with long cooking. Oscar wants a pale jelly, so keep the heat low and stop as soon as a knife goes through easily — usually 25 to 40 minutes depending on ripeness.
- Do not press the fruitThis is the instruction that decides whether the jelly is clear or cloudy. Let the pulp drain through a jelly bag or a colander lined with damp muslin under its own weight, several hours or overnight, and resist squeezing.
- Judging the set"The consistency of jelly" is 220F at sea level, or about 8F above the boiling point of water where you are. A cold-plate test works as well: a spoonful on a chilled saucer should wrinkle when pushed. Expect 15 to 30 minutes after the sugar goes in, not the full twenty-minute pre-boil plus a guess.
- Strain at the end, quicklyPassing finished jelly through a jelly bag as written only works while it is very hot, and it costs you setting time. Skimming the foam carefully is usually enough; if you strain, do it through warmed cloth straight into the jars.
- StoragePapers tied down over the jar mouth relied on a thick sugar layer and a cool larder, and surface mould was a common enough problem that old books tell you to scrape it off. For keeping, use sterilised canning jars and process in a boiling water bath for 10 minutes; otherwise refrigerate and eat within a month.
- YieldDepends on how much water covers the fruit and how far the juice reduces; around 3 lb of quinces will generally give enough jelly for three or four half-pint jars.
Quince was the jelly fruit of the European and American kitchen long before commercial pectin existed: hard, sour and barely edible raw, but so rich in pectin and acid that it sets almost without help. The Portuguese marmelo, quince, gave English the word marmalade, which for centuries meant a stiff quince paste sliceable like cheese rather than anything to do with oranges. By the time Oscar Tschirky was running the Waldorf's dining rooms at the turn of the twentieth century, quince had already begun its retreat from American markets in favor of apples and imported citrus.